Lylat Wars: Legend of the Pirate
by NeoToddZero
Summary: In the heat of the Lylat War, a young space pirate by the name of McCloud makes his presence known with a trail of felonies and destruction. But is the infamous outlaw really what the rumors say? Or is there more than meet the eye when it comes to the one
1. Episode 1: A Modern Day Robin Hood

Author's note: Although it doesn't change the story much, I've decided to update the existing episodes of Lylat Wars. Don't worry, the changes are minor and don't affect the story much, but I have fixed most of my errors. Anyways, Enjoy all.

Episode 1: A modern day Robin Hood

Corneria City

July 26, 2477

10:12 AM

"Sweet, look at this! The new posters are up!"  
"We have no time for that."  
"Don't you want to see how those pics turned out?"

"As a matter of fact, I don't."

It was a day not unlike many others, the sun shined and birds sang. The hustle and bustle of the city was in full swing as it always is at this time of day. Aircars stopped and went at the changing lights, people wandered from shop to shop in the downtown sections, children run about between the legs of their parents, couples ate peacefully in out door cafes, all unaware of the war taking place thousands of miles outside of their own planet, one that will decide the fate of their very own freedom. And still, life continues on with out a care as it always had in this serene metropolis.

Two young Lylatians stood outside on a street corner viewing a sheet of paper with big bold letters that say "Wanted: Dead or Alive" written brightly above photos of two young teenage boys; one a green-eyed, blonde-haired fox with an arrogant grin prancing on his lips as if taunting the ones who wanted him. The other was a nervous toad looking about to faint right off of the page.

"I think they got my good side this time," one of the boys examining the tattered paper exclaimed, "It looks just like me."

It was true, the image on the poster did hold an exact depiction of him, the spiky blonde hair, orange-brown fur, jade green eyes, round black sunglasses, and even the devious grin plastered on his face, everything matched that of the young vulpine. He ripped the poster off the telephone pole it was stapled to, admiring the photo of himself.

"Yep, that's you all right," grinned his friend and partner in crime, the toad who's photo was pasted next to the fox's.

"I shoulda grew a mustache or something," the fox continued, "Aww, Sliiip. You blinked. Well, at least it's better than last time's picture."

"Yeah whatever, it's just a stupid poster anyways."

"Get this, wanted for three robberies, six hijackings, vandalism, arson, grand larceny, grand theft auto… Wow, this thing goes on and on," He boasted, "'Bout time they learned that James McCloud Jr. isn't your small time crook. Someday, they'll know me as 'StarFox, the pirate king of thieves.'"

"In your dreams Fox. Look at the reward."

"Sweet! It's already been raised to 15 Grand!"

"15,000 kei isn't _that_ much yanno."

"Hey, we all gotta start somewhere. I'll make a million by the end of November, you'll see."

"Fox, you're conceited."

"You're just jealous, Slippy, 'cause you're only the sidekick."

The toad shot his friend a dirty look. "You really are an idiot sometimes," he muttered, "Now what was this plan of yours this time? You haven't told me a word about it."

"What? And ruin the surprise? That's for me to know and you to find out."

"In other words you've come up with absolutely squat, as usual."

Fox rubbed the back of his head with embarrassment. "Heh heh, yeah Slip, you got me on that one," he tittered, "Not like I need a plan anyways, I can just wing it like I always do."

"You're hopeless, Fox," Slippy muttered to himself.

"Well, looks like it's time to get into action. Don't forget, I'll meet ya at the space port," Fox winked and flashed the peace sign as he turned and headed toward a large building behind them. His friend looked at him with uncertainty before going his separate way.

Fox waltzed into the building with confidence. Inside was lavishly decorated with marble statues of angels holding swords thrusted into their bases. The floor was also marble with a central red felt carpet covering it. The ceiling was domed and had a mural depicting scenes from some sort of ancient legend. In front of the vulpine were three lines of people leading straight to a lengthy desk with the same number of windows above it.

_Time to get to work_ Fox thought to himself. He folded his hands together as he stretched out his arms in front of him, making a loud popping sound as he took place in the back of the line. The person in front of him turned around to shoot a dirty glare at Fox, only to turn back and see that the young canine had maneuvered in front of him.

"Excuse me. Pardon me. Coming through. Frontsies. Backsies. Hot coffee. Watch out," Fox quipped as he pushed his way to the front of the line. The crowd of people muttered in disapprovement as he made his way to the front.

"Next," The left hand teller called out, Fox scrambled to the counter before anyone else could reach the window. "Hello, what can I do for you?" she chimed pleasantly.

"I'd like to make a withdrawal," Fox replied smoothly, against the glass with his right hand, "50,000 kei please."

"50,000? My, isn't that a bit of money?" she asked.

"It's for a special cause."

"But I can't give you that much on such short notice."

"But I said pleeeaaase," he whined.

"But I can't…"

"Here, I'll even give you my ID," he says, slipping her a tattered laminated card.

She examines the card carefully. It was driver's license with a photo of the young fox, written on top was the James McCloud Jr. Her eyes widened as she looked at the boy nervously and then again at the card.

"You're… You're S… StarFox, the… space… space…" she gasped.

"Space pirate? I know. But I asked you nicely," Fox chimed. She looked up at him again, in his right hand was a small handgun, in his left a beige sack. The security guards, fearing for her life, hesitated to make any move to prevent him from shooting her. She didn't think twice, she went to a nearby safe and began handing him kei notes, as she reached down to pick of the money, she tapped a small button under her desk. Fox picked up his card and began to fill his bag with the notes.

"Thank you, I'll pay ya back when I can," Fox thanked her cheerfully. "And don't worry about the gun. It's plastic." He pulled the trigger, from the barrel came a small paper flag with the word "bang" written on it. "You know, they really gotta stop making these toys looks so realistic," he added, "Somebody might confuse it for a real gun. Here you go, a souvenir," He tossed the toy to the teller and turned toward the door.

As he left, he looked up at the surveillance camera, winked, and then blew a kiss to it. The he turned to the crowd, who were frozen with fear, and bowed to them. "Thank you! You've been a great audience. I'll be here all week, next showing's at four," He shouted as he waltzed out the door, the sack resting over his shoulder.

Outside a cluster of black and white aircars surrounded the area, as several Lylatians dressed in blue were ready to greet him with a blaze of bullets if he were to try anything funny.

"Hold it right there, StarFox!" In front of the group stood a young raccoon woman aiming a handgun at his head, written on her badge is the name Coone.

"Well, well, if it everyone's favorite raven-haired beauty," He replied casually, raising his arms in the air. "Lookin' as good as ever Rocky."

Rocky rolled her rust colored eyes at him. "Knock it off Junior, you're not gonna weasel out of this!"

"Hey, can't a guy complement a pretty girl? Yeesh," he responded innocently, "Ah, you look a little different. Let me guess, you had your hair done? No wait… New shoes? Nah, that ain't it. I got it, new designer glasses."

"Nice try kid, but you're getting nowhere fast," she arrogantly quipped. "Flattery'll get you nowhere, and besides, these are the same glasses I always wear." She took two steps closer to him, then added, "Now drop the bag and come along peacefully."

"Wait, I got something for you." Fox reached into his coat and pulled out a white rose. "A rose for your beauty, here, take it." He tossed the rose in front of her feet, its stem speared itself into the ground. A small green light began to blink rapidly, then suddenly a grey cloud of smoke burst from the flower's head.

The cloud of smoke covered the entire group of police officers. Rocky coughed furiously, squinting to try and spot the vulpine. After a couple minutes, the smoke clears. Where Fox once was, he is no longer.

"Dammit!" Rocky cursed, "The little son of a bitch got away again."

A couple blocks away, Fox raced as quickly as he could down the street. After feeling more secure, he began to gradually slow down to a brisk jog. _Rose-shaped gas cans, even I amaze myself_ he though smugly. He continued down a couple blocks until he passed an alley.

"40 kei, that's my final offer," growled a deep voice from the alley.

"But, but all I have is 35 and 6 yurii. You said it would only cost me 30," protested a second voice, this one female with a slight British accent.

"Heh, that's before we considered the risks of taking you," sneered yet another voice, another male. Fox pressed himself against the wall and listened in on the conversation. He glanced at the group for a quick second. In the alley, a large male canine and his hare cohort have a young kit fox vixen cornered against a fence.

"You gotta remember, this is a favor we're doin' here," The first voice continued, "Takin' you to Carentith puts me in danger of bein' caught."

"But, please, we can work this out," the female pleaded, "I just have to get there."

"For free? Nothin' doin'. You forgot that they have that Genocide base there as well."

"But… But…"

"Well, there is one way," grinned the canine, pressing the vixen against his body.

"No way, I wouldn't do that with you even if you were the last man in Lylat!" she spat at him.

"Ooh, rejected," snickered the hare.

"Nobody rejects me!" shouted the canine, squeezing the vixen's wrist, she let out a cry in pain as he did so.

"Hey, that's no way to treat a lady," a voice rang out from above. Almost instantly, Fox dropped down from above on the fire escape, he hung by his legs upside-down on the rungs of the ladder. "Maybe if you'd get your head out of your ass you'd actually score for once."

"Why you..! I'll kick your scrawny ass for that one!" the canine roared, lunging at the boy. Fox leaped from the rungs and over his attacker, kicking him in the rear and sending him into a line of trashcans. Fox then swiftly jump up, pushed himself off an adjacent wall, and kicked the hare in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. The canine regained footing and charged toward Fox, who greeted him with a swift knee-bash in the groin.

"Dammit, you'll pay for that one," growled the canine. He lunged for McCloud again and grabbed him by the feet, and then tossed him into the trashcans lining the wall. Fox quickly leapt to his feet and threw a nearby lid at the canine. Noticing Fox's attack, the canine evaded it with ease, but was unable to defend against Fox, who immediately thrusted his shoulder into the canine's abdomen. Enraged, the canine grabbed McCloud by his shirt collar, and reared his fist back ready to crush Fox's face. Fox winced, waiting for his impending doom, only to notice his attacker down on the ground. He looked up and saw Kitt holding the lid he had tossed earlier.

"Thanks," Fox said, "We make a pretty good team."

"I could've taken care of them myself," the vixen replied.

"Yeesh, a simple 'you're welcome' would have been sufficient. It's not like I couldn't take 'em on my own either. I would've just given them a Ha… a Ya… a Hiya… and finish with a Whaaaaah," Fox said imitating poses he picked up from old Kung Fu movies he saw on TV.

"Riiiiight, we better be going here, those blokes will be up any second," she remarked. As she said that, the two fallen bodies moaned as they began to try and get back on their feet. "I don't know about you, grasshopper, but I'm outta here."

The vixen dashed out of the alley, Fox followed close behind. He glanced back down the street, he could see a couple squad cars peel out down the street three blocks away, complete with the flashing lights and wailing siren combo. The two were able to travel past five more blocks until one of the said aircars turned onto the same street as them.

"This way! Follow me!" Fox exclaimed, grabbing the vixen by the wrist and pulling her into a darkened alley. They took refuge behind a dumpster trying to regain their breath. The patrol car drove right past them without noticing. They immediately ducked behind again when they saw the two thugs also passed the alley, searching for the pair that humiliated them.

Fox let out a sigh in relief as he leaned against the adjacent wall and sat down. The vixen stared at him quizzically before peaking into the sack he had been carrying the whole time. "You're a rob…" he gently pressed his finger against her lips before she could say anymore.

"Shhh, it's ok. I'm not a bad guy… Ok, yeah, I look like one with this loot and all, but I can explain…" He paused as remembered something he had to do. "Here, I'll pay your way to Carentith if you give me a hand, trust me, nobody will find out."

"But… Fine, thanks to you I'm now an accessory to whatever you did," she reluctantly agreed. He smiled at her and began transferring handfuls of kei notes into her handbag. He then slipped a handful into a hidden pocket in his jacket for himself. After that, he grabbed the bottom of the bag and began to rip it at the seams.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" she exclaimed as he tore a hole in the bottom of the sack.

"I'm only keeping what I need, the rest can go back to the back." He winked at her. "This gives a perfect alibi for what's missing." With that he rose to his feet, flopped the sack back on to his shoulder, grabbed the vixen's hand, and the two took off. Their path was anything but linear, as they weaved in about the streets, kei notes fluttered about the various street of Corneria City until the bag was empty. Tossing the bag into the nearest trashcan, the hurried on their way.

Kei notes fluttered all about the city, it wasn't long until the police were back on McCloud's trail. He looked about, ducking and dodging between cars trying to make sure he or the vixen wouldn't be spotted. More and more the aircars patrolled about the area. Fox spotted a small sidewalk restaurant across the street.

"We'll wait here for a while, hopefully things'll die down soon," he whispered to the vixen. When the coast was clear, he darted across the street, diving behind a parked aircar as one of the officer's vehicles passed without noticing him. The vixen casually crossed the street, when she got there, McCloud was nowhere to be found.

"Down here," Fox whispered tugging on her lavender skirt from under a table. The table was covered with a thick white cloth that reached all the way to the floor, perfect for a private game of footsie or to hide wanted outlaws. The vixen reluctantly crawled underneath with him. From outside, they could hear random bits of conversations flickering about the area. Most of them were trivial things, such as a man screaming on his cell phone to sell his doomed stock pieces, another a young man asking the waiter whether he should take his date to the movies or down by the shore. Fox found the couple behind him the most amusing as they debated over how the male burnt down the kitchen while trying to cook Jell-O. However, a different conversation caught his attention as it gradually grew loader and the source nearer.

"You've been tailing this guy for three days non-stop, you really need to take a break," suggested a scraggly young male voice.

"I'm fine, really. I can handle it," the other, a woman's, coarsely replied.

"Even the GP needs to take a timeout for at least a coffee now and then. You're only straining yourself. Come on, I hear this place has great lattés."

"But…"

"Just try to relax Raquell, you really need to calm down."

"Fine, but I'm only taking a few minutes. After that it's back to work." The male replied contently and made it clear he was going to retrieve the coffee for the two. A few minutes later, the one called Raquell sighed. "I can't believe that little son of a bitch got away again. Hmmph, it's like finding a needle in a goddamn haystack in this city." The two foxes sat quietly as they listened, the quickly scurried to the opposite end of the table as a pair of denim-clad legs emerged under the tablecloth. Minutes passed as the legs lifted up and exited the shelter of the cloth.

"I'm going to go check things out," Fox whispered. He slowly rose to his feet, however, he stopped halfway there noticing a squad car parked alongside the sidewalk. He also noticed a half eaten biscotti resting on the table concealing him from the world.

"Heh heh, maybe a little snack first," he snickered under his breath, he slowly inched his hand toward the small food item laying on the plate in front of him.

He reached for the biscotti, his hand closes in on the pastry, but it wasn't the only one. His hand slowly crept upon a slender grey-furred hand as both reached for the same pastry. In unison, both Fox and the hand's owner let out an ear splitting scream.

"You pervert!" shouted the hand's owner, a tall grey-furred, denim-clad raccoon, "How dare you! I'll break your neck for that!"

"Heh, Um Hi…" McCloud tittered, "It's not what you think…"

"Not what I think! Then what exactly was it!" queried the raccoon.

"Well, um, you see… Heh, heh… It's a really funny story," he nervously replied.

"Wait, it's YOU!" she shouted. Fox blinded and looked at her blindly. He let out a loud squeak when he realized who this Raquell was.

"Ro… Rocky? What a pleasant surprise. You know, I was just thinking about you…"

"Nice try Junior, but I got you now." She closed her grasp on his wrist and pulled out a pair of handcuffs from a pouch attached to her belt. As she tried to latch them onto his wrist, he managed to wriggle out. Fox kicked the table over and tugged on the vixen's arm. The two vulpines zigzagged through the tables, twisting and twirling as the bumped bystanders and leapt over fallen chairs and waiters. Raquell followed in hot pursuit.

"Hold it right there!" she shouted at McCloud, who completely ignored her, lifting the vixen over his shoulder with one arm, and grabbing a serving platter from a nearby waiter with the other. He leaped into the air, shoving the platter under his feet and used it as a makeshift snowboard as he raced down the sloped streets of Corneria City.

"Are you mad!" the vixen screamed at Fox, "You're going to get us killed this way!"

"I know what I'm doing, just trust me," he reassured her.

Sparks flew from the platter below, but despite the friction, they managed to continue to pick up speed. Fox glanced back at the bewildered raccoon, but to his surprise, Officer Coone was right on his tail, also riding a platter like a board.

"Oh great, nice one, dumbass," the vixen snapped at him, "And now how are we gonna lose _her_?"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing… erm… sorta," He replied.

"SORTA! You mean you even have a bloody PLAN!" she shouted.

"I kinda like to, you know, 'wing it.'"

"Great, in other words, we're screwed."

"We're not done in just yet, I didn't get my reputation for nothing," McCloud grinned. With that, he maneuvered his makeshift "board" in between a cluster of aircars parked alongside the road. He kicked his "board" up upon the hood of one of the parked cars and used the windshield as a small ramp. Closely behind him, Raquell matches his moves with ease.

"Dammit," Fox muttered, "Time for plan B." He continued down the street evading the oncoming traffic, closer and closer, they approached the busy intersection in front of them, the raccoon still gaining on them.

"Ok, this is it! Hang on tight!" Fox shouted. As they reached the intersection, the light had change from green to red, and traffic, unaware of the approaching vulpines, crossed the intersection routinely.

"Fox, stop now! We're gonna die!" the vixen cried.

"What the hell are they doing! That guy's insane!" the puzzled Raquell exclaimed, slowing her "board" to a stop.

Fox, on the other hand, did not. All the hovering vehicles screeched to a halt at the sight of the two crossing in the heart of traffic. An airtruck stopped right in front of the incoming foxes. Not at all flinching, McCloud managed to jump is board off the truck, onto the nearest car, grind down the side of the dividing rail, jumped off another car, and used the front of a large airbus to vault him and his companion up and over traffic.

Raquell stood there with her mouth gaping open, as she viewed the feat without once blinking. She stood there paralyzed as she watched the two sail over a nearby fence and into a quiet ally.

"Sonic, eat your heart out," Fox joked as he slowed his board to a halt.

"You can let me down now you know," the vixen reminded Fox. He gently let her down to her feet.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"Didn't mean to! Are you out of you bloody skull! You could have gotten us, and everyone else, killed! If I knew you were like this I wouldn'tve…"

"Ok, ok. I'm sorry. But nobody got hurt at least."

"Yeah but still…" Fox shushed her as he looked at the watch on his wrist.

"Ok, I wont do anything crazy again, but right now I have a job to finish. I'll drop you off at the space port and you can get the next ship to Carentith."

The two walked out of the alley and found themselves in a rundown section of town. It was quite a depressing sight. Buildings barely were able to hold their foundations as they crumbled onto the pavement below. The inhabitants only looked upon the two with soulless eyes, their dreams lost, their wills broken. They shuffle about their meager lives trying to make by, each one lacking any emotion at all. Children clothed in ratty garments crowded about the stranger, eyes wide and full of curiosity. Fox stopped and pulled out a handful of lollipops from his pocket, handing one to each of the eager children.

"Now you guys keep up being good, obey your mommies and I'll bring you something even better next time I visit," he chuckled, watching the children play tag about the street before being tagged himself and playfully chasing the youngsters about. The vixen watched him puzzledly, how could a bank robber be so kind, why would an outlaw spend his time with children. Thoughts battled about her head as she watched him get dog-piled by the happy children, everyone laughing and having a good time. After playing for about fifteen minutes, Fox rejoined the vixen and lead her inside one of the run-down buildings.

A musty draft filled their nostrils as the entered. The interior was dimly lit and caked with dirt and rubble. The foxes climbed two flights of stairs before reaching an apartment numbered N-64, Fox knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" chimed a soft feminine voice.

"It's me, Romani," Fox replied. A rustle of latches and locks was heard and the door slowly opened. On the opposite side stood a lynx woman. She appeared to be in her late 30's, but didn't show it. Behind her, timidly stood her daughter, who was about nine, staring at the visitors with wide blue eyes. "Hello Romani, hello…"

"Kitt," the vixen informed her.

"Pleased to meet you Kitt."

"Hello Ma'am, hey Kari," Fox cheerfully greeted them, "Guess what? I got it."

"But, really… You didn't need to."

"Hey, I couldn't let you like in this craphole without helping out."

"But to give so much?"

"Don't worry about it, I can afford it. Please, you need the money, take it."

"But… But…"

"I'm not gonna take no for an answer yanno." He smirked, handing her the wads of cash from Kitt's handbag. The woman's eyes filled with tears of joy as she looked at the two vulpines. "There, that'll keep ya until you can get a good job." He smiled pleasantly, and the turned to the young girl, handing her a couple kei notes and adding, "And here's a little something extra for you, now you can get that Kazuki doll you've always wanted." She giggled as he gave her a noogie. She returned the favor with a whack in the head by a pillow, the two began to roughhouse on the couch, bopping each other in the head with pillows and giggling like schoolgirls. After a while, Fox surrendered and turned back to her mother, who looked upon him gratefully.

"Thank you, and God bless you both," the mother cried. She insisted they stayed for lunch, Fox didn't want to impose, even though stomach let out a soft rumble, reluctantly, he agreed to stay. They chatted for a couple hours before they had to go their separate ways. The pair waved goodbye as they headed back to the streets.

"Ok, now to get you to the space port so you can get to Carentith," Fox told Kitt, he was quite chipper for an outlaw. Kitt looked at Fox again, it was hard for her to believe such a guy just robbed a bank and beat the snot out of two vicious thugs. Not him, he was an innocent young man who loved children and helped the unfortunate, wasn't he?

"That was really sweet of you," she said.

"What can I say, I like to help. Ever since her husband was killed during the Lylatian War, it was a struggle just for her and her daughter to survive, now they have enough to buy a new home and keep warm and fed for a month. I hate lying to them, but if people know they met StarFox, who knows what could happen to them with the crazed pirates and bounty hunt…"

"You're STARFOX!" She shouted. She couldn't believe her eyes, this was the infamous pirate? But it wasn't that, that infamous pirate, the scourge of Lylat, the rouge of the galaxy, was a boy who played with children and aided poor families.

"Jesus-tap-dancing-Christ, keep it down will ya?" he snappily whispered to her, "Yeah, I'm him, but don't go making a big deal about it." She didn't say anything, her breath became quick and short. "Come on, trust me, I already told you I'm not the bad guy, I just don't always play by the rules. You know, kinda like a modern day Robin Hood. Steal from the rich and give to the needy, that's me. I know you've hear all those rumors of a vicious criminal, destroyer of cities, bringer of death, but I'm not like that."

"I… I believe you," she whispered.

"You mean that runt is StarFox?" Shouted a familiar voice. "After I beat the shit out of you, I'll take ya in for the reward."

"Not again…" Fox moaned.

Lunging at Fox was the same canine thug he had dealt with before. Fox's reflexes kicked in as he smashed his foot into the snout of his attacker. Stunned, the canine called his cohort as the two vulpines raced into a condemned building.

"I think we lost them," Fox panted as the door crashed open. The thugs stepped into the room. The leader, now armed with a knife, dove straight at Fox, gashing his right arm. Fox snarled and retaliated with a kick to the chest. The furious canine now repetitively swung at McCloud, but Fox was much too quick and dodged every blow. The fight between the two was fast and furious, with blows being dealt left and right. Fox swung his leg at the canine's right hand, knocking the knife into the air.

"Fun's fun and all, but somebody's gonna lose an eye with that thing," Fox joked as he caught the knife in midair. He felt something trickle down from his hand, a jolt of pain charged from his right hand as he finally noticed he had grabbed a hold of the blade instead of the handle. Screaming and flailing, he launched the knife back into the air, to come back down into his left foot. Fox yelped and hopped about on his good foot, bouncing into his attacker. The canine lost balance and toppled over onto his cohort. Fox continued to hop about, eventually tripping over the pile and landing on top of them.

"All right! Everybody freeze!" Fox recognized the voice this time, it was Rocky, and she was standing in the door way with a handgun pointing at the huddle mess of furries. Behind her was a large group of police officers ready to fire on the raccoon's command.

Fox was the first to raise his hands above his head, he still had his promise to Kitt, and he didn't want to risk the lives of anyone in the area. He slowly walked up to Raquell, putting his wrists out in from of him. She immediately slapped a pair of cuffs on him, an arced beam bent around over his wrists, locking him in place. Kitt and the thugs were more reluctant, but also surrendered.

"I did it!" Rocky exclaimed confidently, "I caught the space pirate StarFox!" She walked the arrestees into the backseat of a pair of patrol cars.

"Nice job Coone, looks like a promotion will be in your near future," a the police chief congratulated her, stepping out of the car. "Commendable work, I've always liked your style rookie." He saluted her.

"Erm, thanks," she blushed, returning the salute, "Believe me sir, I make sure I get the job done no matter what, sir."

"Good to hear, maybe someday you'll make it to be a first class detective."

"Thanks sir. But I really think you should keep an eye on StarFox, he's a real slippery one." The two stood there watching the aircars take off. Rocky could have sworn Fox was giving her an arrogant wink as the cars drove away.


	2. Episode 2: Crazy Like A StarFox

Episode 2: Crazy like a StarFox

Fennix Star Spaceport, Corneria City

July 26, 2477

6:15 PM

News spread quite rapidly throughout the Lylat System. Upon every television screen, broadcasts of McCloud's capture informed the inhabitants of the fate of the young outlaw.

"What, they got him! No Way!" Slippy shouted at a television monitor in the main lobby of the Fennix Star Spaceport. He had been waiting there for hours for his partner to show when a broadcast of his friend's fate caught his eye.

"… Currently, he's being transported to the Galactic Police Headquarters, where he shall stay until his trial. His accomplice, a young runaway identified, as Miss Kitt Ayanami, and a pair of street thugs are also being taken to custody. Only a small portion of the stolen money was recovered, the rest is assumed to be either picked up by passing by citizens or have blown out to sea by now," The reporter on the screen continued her report, "We recently spoke with the person who was able to arrest, now to Irwin with the report" She image on the monitor changed to a scene outside Corneria's police station. A reporter stood out front where a pack of police aircars were parked as they unloaded their "passengers." A tall young raccoon woman steps out of one of the cars, before she could go anywhere, the reported cornered her between the cars.

"Here we have the officer who was able to finally arrest StarFox, Raquell 'Rocky' Coone. Officer Coone, would you mind answering a few questions," the reported asked the bewildered raccoon.

"Well… Uhh… Actually…"

"Good, first, how long have you been with the GP?"

"Umm… About six …"

"Nice, so was it difficult to track McCloud?"

"He did put up a chal…"

"And how did you managed to get him?

"Well I…"

As she tried to speak, in the background the young pirate McCloud was being escorted out the vehicle and into the station. He stopped for a second and began making weird faces toward the camera, pushing his nose up, sticking out his tongue, blowing raspberries, puffing his cheeks, the works . "The ham," Slippy chuckled to himself as the young pirate bent over and began patting his rear end before the intergalactic audience.

"Wonderful. You heard it here first folks. Back to you Caroline."

"Thank you Irwin. Currently, McCloud's partner, Slippy Toad, is still at large, his whereabouts are still unknown…" The reporter rambled on. Slippy sat in his seat calmly, the trenchant and fedora getup he bough quite easily concealed his identity. He watched on for a few more minutes before turning his attention to the passing tourists and travelers. _I sure hope you know what you're doing Fox_, he thought to himself now staring out the closest window.

Hours later, deep in space, a large space station, rotating continuously as it orbited a nearby star, opened a hatch, allowing three ships, on larger than the others, to enter it's docking bay. The ships slowly descended to the cold metal floor of the docks. From the stepped eight Galactic Police officers, two of which were carefully eyeing McCloud.

"Take the boy to his cell," one of the officers commanded. His colleagues nodded, and grabbed the boy's arms and escorted him down a long white hallway.

Raquell slowly stepped out of a four spacecraft that had just recently landed. She looked as if she were looking beyond the station before her, a solemn expression on her face, then looked down at the floor below. She was quickly greeted by a fellow officer, a male serval, about her age, who was a bit scrawny in build with long brown hair and large "Coke bottle" glasses.

"Great job Rocky!" he congratulated her with a pat on her right shoulder. "You finally got him. Lylat can sleep easy now."

She looked up at her friend, and then looked down again. "For now I guess… But what's it matter when there's a war going on?"

"We've gone through this before, it's not our place to worry about civil conflicts like this. Our job is to keep the galaxy safe for travelers."

"And letting a madman start an interplanetary war is safe?" she accused, now staring out a window at the solar system around them.

"No, but it's beyond our control. Look, I don't make the rules, I only enforce them, just like you do. These things happen all the time between groups of power. It's gone about all of history. You know one of our major rules is to not get involved with civil wars like this, we can't be taking sides."

"Yeah, but all those people…"

"I know, I wish we could help too, but it's all up to Pepper, he'll pull through. The empire will fall soon," he assured her.

"I hope you're right, Rinh, I sure hope you're right," she sighed.

"Have I ever been wrong before?" He grinned.

She looked at him, forming a devilish smile on her face. "What about Anna?" she taunted, walking down the hallway.

"Hey… wait… That's different!" Rinh shouted, blushing as he ran after her, "Low blow Rocky. Low blow!"

Meanwhile Fox grew restless as he was being escorted down the hall. "I've got to get out of here," the boy whispered under his breath. His eyes desperately scanned about the hallway for any hope of escape.

"What was that!" demanded the officer to his left.

"I said, I gotta go to the bathroom, can we stop first?" the fox whimpered, "I really gotta pee."

"You can hold it until you get to your cell," the other officer replied.

"I can't. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, Iiii caaaaan't," he whined as he danced about as if he hand some sort of creature rustling in his pants, "I can't hold it any longer, I'll wet my pants. Pleeeeeaaaaaze let me use the little fox's room before I got to my cell. I promise, I'll make no trouble, scout's honor."

The two officers looked at each other blankly. "Fine, you can go," one of the finally replied, "The men's room is down the hall and to your right. We'll walk you down to it and wait outside for you."

"Like I'm a scout," Fox chuckled to himself under his breath.

Once inside the restroom, the young vulpine didn't hesitate to begin the second part of his ingenious plan. Searching frantically for a way out, he noticed an air vent positioned above one of the toilet stalls, not only that, with a stroke dumb luck, it had been recently installed and wasn't fully screwed in or wired as well. He quickly slipped into the vacant stall, and scrambled on top of the toilet. It took him several minutes of pushing and shoving to realize that it was stuck good, and being handcuffed didn't help his situation either. The plucky canine slipped his sunglasses from atop his forehead, and began to pry the cover open with one of their tips. As he relentlessly worked to regain his freedom, he didn't notice his left leg slowly sliding off the toilet's back until it was too late.

_Kerplash_! His foot landed right into the commode, it was now sopping wet and covered with who knows what living in the facility. And to top it all off a trail of soggy toilet paper had attached itself to his heel.

"Ugh," he groaned in disgust, shaking his soggy foot while pulling it from the toilet bowl. Without another word, he instantly went back to work as if nothing happened. This time, his efforts were paid off in soon after as he managed to slide the grated cover off the vent and crawled in. The gentle breeze flowing through the vent made his soaked foot feel like ice as he silently crept through. Below him, the two officers waited for their prisoner to finish answering nature's call.

"Did you hear some of the things this guys done? He's insane," one of the officers said.

"Yeah, how does he do it?"

"I don't know, either this guy's a genius or a complete dumbass."

"I think it's the second one. I mean, what kind of space pirate steals Twinkies?"

"Twinkies?" snickered the first officer.

"Yeah, a whole freighter of them. He smashed a FireBird X87 into it, nearly blew up the whole thing if he missed his target by even an inch. I tell ya, this guy's got the more dumb luck than the entire population of Katina."

"Not dumb luck, dumb skills," giggled the fox to himself. Fortunately for him, the officers didn't notice his remark.

"Sounds like it, I mean, he was even caught by a mere rookie, what's her name…" the first officer continued the conversation.

"Coone. Raquell Coone, she just graduated from the academy a few…"

"What's taking him so long?" complained the other officer.

"Don't know, doesn't take _that _long," replied the other. "He's up to something."

"Better go check it out," his colleague moaned, kicking the door open. Inside the room was void of any signs of life, except that the new ventilation shaft grate was no longer in its place. It didn't take long for the news to spread about the station as voices on the PA alerted everyone of McCloud's escape.

By now fox had passed beyond the hallway and was making his way eastward. He frantically scrambled, hoping to God that they haven't thought of checking the vents. He paused for a moment as he passed over the women's locker room, partially staring at the female officers as they changed into their uniforms and the other part searching for Rocky in hopes of nabbing the key to his cuffs off her. Unfortunately, he was able to fulfill only one of those objectives, Rocky apparently wasn't in that part of the station.

A strange scent climbed into Fox's nostrils as he searched, the smell burnt the back of his throat and tasted of vomit, tears began to blur his vision. A cloud of smoke began to engulf the young fox. Hacking and coughing violently, he tried frantically to cover his face with his bandana as he began moving again. Not paying attention, he managed to climb on top of the vent's grating, which was unable to support his weight and came crashing down to the locker room below. He also came crashing to the floor, landing face first in the center of the room. Pairs of enraged eyes surrounded him as he stumbled to his feet and dusted himself off.

"Yup, that vent's gotta go back to the shop, can't have faulty equipment in a place like this yanno," Fox grunted in a gruff voice, rubbing his bruised behind. The partially dressed officers stared at him with disbelief. "I told dem that it wasn't in right, just wait 'til my supervisor finds out about this. Excuse me ladies, but I gotta go get my tools soes I can fix this here vent."

"Nice try Junior, but normally we don't cuff our repairmen," chortled one of the officers as she stepped out of the showers. It was obvious she wasn't there to bathe on account that she was completely dry and fully clothed in a denim uniform. "I had a feeling you'd find your way here. You know, you're starting to get predictable." A wicked grin grew across her smoky face.

"Predictable? Moi?" Fox replied arrogantly, copping a forged clueless expression.

"Give it up Fox, you've got nowhere to go," she sneered, adjusting her glasses before they slip off her nose. Fox looked about seeing only the piercing glares of her fellow officers suffocating him. He slowly walked up to her. He slumped over, starring at the floor, as he held out his arms in surrender.

"You win again, Rocky, I'll go peacefully," he moaned. Unbeknown to everyone, a secret devilish grin crept across his fuzzy lips. He made sure to conceal his true feelings as looked back up to his captor. With a conceited smile across her face, the raccoon snapped a second pair of cuffs onto her left and his right wrists, and proudly marched her prisoner out the door and into the hallway.

"I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. I'm bored. I have to potty. I wanna watch cartoons. I'm tired. My tummy hurts. I wanna go home," relentlessly whined the fox. The trek to his cell was long and strenuous on the young officer's nerves, felling more like a babysitter than a proud member of the Galactic Police. Every hallways intersection he tugged on his cuffs as he tried to wander down every left-hand turn. Of course lacking anything that could be considered muscle, he was quickly overpowered by her.

Rocky walked Fox into the elevator, his cell was fifteen floors above the main level. Instantly after she pressed the correct floor, Fox piped in and rolled his free hand over the control panel, hitting every the button for every floor in between. The ride gradually whittled down every last nerve belonging to the raccoon, as she had to endure Fox singing along with the sappy music coming from the speakers above.

"There was a little Spanish flea, a super record star he though he'd be. He heard of singers like Beatles, and chipmunks he'd seen on TV. Why not a little Spanish flea?" he sang, watching the officer slowly burn to a boil. As he was singing, he secretly began to slip his left hand out of his first pair of cuffs. "Second verse, same as the first! There was a little…"

"SHUT UP DAMMIT!" she screamed. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for. With his newly liberated hand, he dove into her pocket and retrieved a small card. His work did not go unnoticed however, as she sharply yanked her cuffed arm, pulling him with it. The action jolted the card out of his free hand and onto the elevator floor. Both furries leaped to the floor, scrambling on top of one another to be the first to obtain the card.

The doors opened when they finally reached their destination. Outside, a handful of officers nervously stared at the pair. During the struggle Rocky had managed to seat herself on top of Fox's waistline, leaning over him holding his arms down, their faces dangerously close to each other's.

"It's… It's not what you think!" she protested after she realized the position the two had gotten into. She scrambled onto her feet, dragging him up with her. He smugly pretended to zip his pants and was met with a hard smack in the back of his head. "This dumbass here was trying to unlock his cuffs and dropped the key-card to the floor…" As she tried to defend her integrity, the vulpine managed to swipe the card, slide it through the corresponding slot, and free himself from the handcuffs.

"Uh… Miss?" one of the officers tried to get the attention of the embarrassed raccoon.

"What?" she replied bitterly, noticing the escaping fox. Fox wasn't able to get far, the on looking officers blocked his path, and Raquell was closely on his tail. He leaped right into the center officer, plowing over him. As McCloud raced down the hallway, the angered coon hurled a small, pink, cube-like device at him. Upon reflex, the fox twirled about, kicking the object into the cluster of objects separating him from Raquell. A bright light flashed and the group dropped to the floor unable to move. Being within a safe distance, both Fox and Rocky were unharmed.

The flash provided a perfect cover as Fox slipped behind a door. On the other side were rows of high security cells. Fox winced as he passed the various creatures locked away, most of which he'd never seen before. The creatures looked at him, growling and speaking nonsense in their native tongues as he passes, a protective beam shell separated him from the beasts. Fox arrogantly pressed his face against the shells of some of the more intimidating looking creatures, making strange faces against the glass-like surfaces.

"Stop pratting about ya moron!" Shouted a voice from the far end of the room. "It's your fault I'm in this mess." Fox meandered to the source of the voice, behind the beam shell sat a familiar young vixen. Her black tipped tail flicked about with disapprovement, she glared at him with her muddy brown eyes. "Thanks to you I'm now stuck in jail," she sneered.

"Kitt? Thank goodness I found you," he tittered. He felt across the shell, his hands migrating toward a small keypad on the frame of the entrance. "I'll have you out in a jiff."

"I think you helped enough thank you very much," she growled. Not a word got through the vulpine's thick skull as he randomly punched random codes into the keypad. "No! What are you doing! You're gonna get me in even more trouble than you already have!" Still no response, he continued punching in codes despite her protests. Letting out an aggravated groan, he pressed his head against the keypad with frustration. He let out a growl and smashed his right foot into the panel that the keypad was on. The blow caused all the buttons to cave inward and the tiny bands of metal that separated them were no match for its force. Fox struggled frantically as his foot became lodged into the wall. Scrambling about like a chicken who's head had been cut off, he managed to slip out of his sneaker and drop it into the wall. The young fox blinked a cheesy grin to his imprisoned companion and began digging into the hole for his missing footwear. Tearing through the jumbled mass of circuitry and wires, a jolt of electricity shot raced into his body, making his fur stand on end and half the lights in the room to go out. Kitt desperately pounded against her light barrier, only to land flat on her face inches from McCloud's feet.

"Toldja I'd get you outta this," he giggled with embarrassment, pulling his shoe out of the hole and back onto his foot. She said nothing but gave him a spiteful scowl, trying hard to look displeased despite how much the shock made him look like Don King, pushed herself to her feet and angrily dusted her skirt off. She remained silent, but Fox could tell she wasn't pleased with him, though the reason why was well over his head. "Well? What are we waitin' for? Let's blow this Popsicle stand." He clamped down onto her wrist and tugged hastily, her stubborn nature kept her feet firmly to the ground. However, it was no match for the boy's persistence. Sighing with frustration, she reluctantly followed him.

"I hope you're happy, thanks to you I'm a fugitive as well," she growled. Fox paid no attention to her, his mind set on only getting himself and Kitt out alive, and also on what he'd order from the nearest Taco Bell drive through, it _had_ been a while since his last meal.

Being foxes, they had little trouble slipping down the hallways without being noticed. They stealthily slinked from corridor to corridor, as small group of casually dressed teens, lead by a single GP officer, marched down an intersection in front of them.

"Follow my lead, I've got an idea," Fox beckoned. He rustled his blonde hair a bit, taking off his bandana, rolling it up, and wrapping it around his forehead. He then unrolled the sleeves of his beige jacket and buttoned it up. He nodded his head letting his sunglasses leap from atop his forehead and over his eyes. He signaled the vixen to follow, and the two took place in back of the group. "Try to look natural," He whispered to her.

"All right Cadets," the officer spoke in a loud and serious voice, "There's been a breakout, everybody is on alert. This is a perfect chance to put your training to work." The group let out a collective groan.

"Aww man, this sucks, do we have to?" Fox shouted, the officer looked at him disapprovingly and continued on.

"I want you get in uniform, and head over to the surveillance rooms and relieve those working there so that they can join the search. If you see anything suspicious, you are to report it immediately. Now go." The group groaned again and walked into a pair of locker rooms, the males into one, the females another. Fox and Kitt nervously followed the group of their respective gender. Inside the locker room, the groups seated themselves and began changing into a familiar denim uniform. Fox pulled one of the cerulean jumpsuits out and pulled it over his clothes, putting his jacket over the denim garment. He smiled deviously as he pulled a small coded card out of one of the suit's pockets

The group returned to the hallway and headed down it. Fox caught up with Kitt, who had also pulled one of the jumpsuits on over her clothes. As the group marched passed a fork in the hallway, the foxes diverged down the opposing corridor. They cautiously checked each and every room.

Eventually the pair found a flight of stairs. "Come on, the docking bay is a few floors below us, if we can get there, we're home free," he laughed, tugging her hand to follow him. He raced down flight after flight with her following behind closely. They passed an officer racing up the opposite direction, he looked at them for a split-second and continued on his way without a second glance. He secretly giggled as he watched his disguise work perfectly.

The foxes finally reached the main floor, coming out beside a familiar hallway, McCloud had little difficulty tracking his way back to the docking bay. Inside a lone guard watched over the scattered crimson spacecrafts. Fox messed up his hair and clothes and hobbled to the lone guard.

"Help, he's been spotted in section B52. He's armed and dangerous, we need all the backup we can get," he panted in a pathetic tone, "Hurry, I dunno how long they can hold him." The officer looked at him nervously. "Don't look at me, go already." The officer frantically drew his weapon and raced out the door. "Heh heh, sucker," Fox chuckled to himself.

He walked over to Kitt triumphantly. "Not bad if I do say so myself," Fox boasted, arrogantly rubbing his fingernails against his chest. The duo climbed into one of the vacant spacecrafts. Fox whipped out his card and slid it through a matching slot beside the steering wheel.

"Do you know how to drive this thing!" Kitt shouted.

"No, but I'm a fast learner," he replied smugly, "All right everyone, please keep you hands and arms inside the vehicle and remain seated until it has come to a complete stop. We are not responsible for any lost or stolen articles. Fasten your safety belt and hang onto you hats and glasses, 'cause this is gonna be one hell of a wild ride."

The machine's engine began to whirr wildly as it clumsily lifted off the ground. Fox began punching in random buttons in hopes of getting it to move. One of such buttons caused the whole room to flood with red and blue lights, as an ear-shattering wail came from the vehicle. The commotion drew hordes of officers into the room just as the spacecraft drunkenly wobbled toward the exit. One of the officers quickly pressed a large red button on the wall.

"Shit! We're not gonna make it!" Kitt screamed as in front of them a large metal door began to lower in front of the only exit from the station. Fox stared out at it unphased, pressing down on a pedal at his feet. The craft let out a burst of blue and green flames and roared toward the ever-shrinking exit at break-neck speeds. The machine shot out of the space station seconds before the metal door would have sealed their fate.

"Whooooooooohoooooohoooooohooooooooooooooo!" Fox shouted, "You see that? It's was like inches above and we made it. See, I told you I knew what I was doing." It took a while for Kitt's nerves to calm down and notice him talking. She said nothing, mostly because she was still waiting for her breath to catch up with her. Freedom never looked so good as they viewed in awe at the Lylatian system around them. The stars around them shined brightly and few spacecrafts floated about the vast ocean of black. "Looks like traffic's down enough to get you to Carentith," he said confidently, "See? I'm good for my word. Now lets turn on some tunes." He flipped a few switches on the ship's control panel.

"I feel alive, I feel a love. I feel a love that's really real I'm on sunshine baby, oh. Oh yeah, I'm on sunshine baby, oh," the ship's radio played. Fox joined with the song, adding his unique tone-deaf voice to the melody. "I'm walking on sunshine, whoa oh! I'm walking on sunshine, whoa oh! I'm walking on sunshine, whoa oh…" Fox felt a hand smack him swiftly in the back of the head. Rubbing his head, he gave Kitt a "why'd you do that?" look before returning to navigating the spacecraft towards a blue planet below as the radio continued on.

"And don't it feel good?"


	3. Episode 3: PeaceKeeper

Disclaimer: Everyone should already know I don't own Fox, Wolf, Slippy and related characters, they belong to Nintendo. Kitt, Rocky, Lt Ferral and related characters are mine though.

Episode 3: Peace Keeper

Carentith City: Second District, Aquas

July 27, 2477

12:23 PM

"Yer kind ain't wanted here," growled a large ursine man from behind the counter. His thick arms arched and his balled fists rested upon his large waistline as he glared at his unwanted guest. The young man he was speaking to didn't say a word, he just sat there casually puffing on his cigarette. He only paused to brush his snow colored hair out of his face, exposing his scarred left eye to the world around him.

"I told you, you ain't wanted her. So get yer flea-bitten carcass outta here ya filthy lupe," the large man roared. His pest continued to ignore him, turning his stool around so that his back faced the angry man. Beneath his dark trench coat, his fluffy silver tail flicked about with frustration, yet his face lacked the same emotion. He continued to calmly smoke his cigarette, coldly staring at a "Wolves Not Welcome" sign.

"Allright you, if you don't get outta here, thing's are gonna get complicated," the man behind the counter desperately tried to keep his anger in check. Again the young man said nothing, this time responding with a smug flash of his middle finger. The ursine's obscenities were completely ignored as the young lupine man hopped from his seat and headed to the figure entering the building.

"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in," he chuckled coarsely. Standing before him was a young feline woman dressed in a black uniform, upon her chest were various medals and an infamous insignia belonging to the Androssian Empire. Her cold eyes were of a deep navy tone, and looked as if to be piercing into his own. Unamused, she flicked her black ears, one of which had seen better days and was slightly notched.

"Charming," she scoffed, "Peace Keeper O'Donnell, I presume?"

"You got it, Miss…"

"Ferral, but that's Lieutenant General Ferral to you."

"Ferral, eh? So, you're still holding the deal, right?"

"That is correct," she nodded, "A very important and highly classified document has fallen into the hands of a civilian." She punched in a few commands onto a device worn upon her left wrist, a small hologram of a young vixen dressed in a green velvet coat, lavender skirt, and pale blue jeans, her wavy blonde hair curled over her face, a lone fluorescent pink stripe ran down her frontal bangs. "We've been able to identify her as Kitt Ayanami, a runaway from the Terra Solar System. She somehow managed to pick up the disk containing the document, if it falls into the hands of the GP or Cornerian government, it could prove fatal to our operations."

"So you want me to get this disk."

"Exactly. But you mustn't harm the girl, the last thing this operation needs is the GP breathing down our backs. Complete your task unnoticed and you will receive the 100,000 kei as promised."

The young man pondered over the proposal for second before shaking the hand of the officer, "You got yourself a deal."

Meanwhile, miles above the atmosphere of Planet Aquas, Kitt desparately tried to keep her large fuzzy ears shielded from Fox's off-key singing. Her head pounded from his tone-deaf voice, she painstakingly fought back the urges she had to kill the young pirate for a moment's peace.

"Wake me up, before you go go. Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo," Fox sang alongside the radio, though he sounded more like screeching.

Kitt could no longer take it anymore. "Shut up!" she screamed. Fox stared at her stunned and did just as she told.

"Don't hurt me," he whimpered quietly. He sighed looked out the side window. Coming up from behind was a spacecraft that looked very much like the one he was driving, in fact, it was the exact same type. He frantically looked out the opposing side and saw another. Dozens of ships just like his were scattered about in his rear-view monitor. "Holy spumoni! Kitt, buckle yourself in, we got company!" he shouted.

The two quickly buckled themselves into their seats. Fox clamped onto the steering wheel and jerked it violently. The spacecraft slid to the right, nearly hitting one of its twins.

"Halt or we'll shoot," commanded a voice coming from the speakers. Fox paid no attention to the message, cranking up the radio to drown out any other incoming transmissions. He was completely unaware of the ultimatum sent to him, but the jolt of impact from enemy fire caught his attention. He shoved the wheel in causing it to do a full nose-dive to the planet's atmosphere below before arcing up an between two ships, drawing their fire upon each other. Their wings blasted right off from their fire, however their hulls remained intact and pilots harmless and safe. Fox weaved the ship in an out of the pack pursuing him, drawing their fire onto the weapon systems of each other, rendering them useless.

"Nya nya, can't get me," Fox taunted arrogantly. His cockiness got the best of him as he hot-dogged it between two ships, miscalculating the distance, and brushing against them. It was enough to tear the wings of his ship clear off. Fox desperately tried to steer the ship, but without the wings, it was next to impossible. He and Kitt fell into a collision course with the water-covered surface of Planet Aquas, the other ships watched him plummet to the sea below, they have better chances capturing him stranded out in the ocean.

Fortunately the entire surface was covered by one endless ocean, so his landing will be soft enough to survive. The downside was that Aquas was nothing but ocean except for the single city of Carentith, built upon a synthetic island, and chances of them landing near it were very slim. Fox began punching in buttons, one of them had to control the ship's G-Diffuser. If he could get control of that, he could drive the ship like an ordinary aircar across the ocean's surface. Sweat rolled down his brow as a combination from his nerves and the fact that the ship had caught fire as it burnt through the planet's atmosphere.

"And Bingo was his name-o," he grinned. The spacecraft smashed into the ocean surface creating a cataclysmic splash. He flipped a pair of switches and pressed down hardly on the pedal. Instead of resurfacing, the ship stayed below the waves, zipping through various rock formations.

It wasn't long until his pursuers found out what he had done, and continued to follow on his tail from above the surface. Fox desperately looked for a way out. "Kitt, put one of those suits on," he commanded, spotting a pair of emergency spacesuits hanging in the back of the cockpit. He quickly began removing the uniform he had taken from the station and used it to tie down the pedal so that the ship remained at full speed. He then slipped into one of the spacesuits, waited for Kitt who reluctantly did the same, and kicked the door open. Grabbing Kitt's hand, he leaped out the door against the water rushing into the ship's cockpit and watched the submerged spacecraft zoom into the distance. The pursuing vehicles followed the makeshift submarine out into the horizon.

Their spacesuits provided them with adequate protection from the ocean's pressure and enough oxygen to last them six hours. Fox clung nervously to a nearby rock, finally realizing he had never learned how to swim. Kitt looked at him and chuckled softly before swimming beside the jittery vulpine. They waited beneath the waves for a couple hours, not one sign of their pursuers could be seen. A large dark shadow began to slowly form over them, they huddled closely cautiously watching the form.

Because their attention was fixated on the strange shadow, neither fox saw the net drop from above and ensnare them until it was too late. Try as the might, they were unable to free themselves from the net, the more they struggled, the more they became tangled in the mass. Fish flopped about inside the net as they became caught up in it as well, making the vulpines' aquatic prison quite crowded. Minutes later, the net began to rise toward the shadow resting upon the surface.

Floating above the surface was a large seafaring ship. It was quire primitive compared to Lylat's high-tech machinery, but it was relatively in good condition. On board, a pair of fishermen pulled the net out of the water.

"Sure is heavy, eh Mick," one asked.

"Ay, we must've caught the mother load," the other replied. They heaved the net onboard, shocked by their catch. Fox and Kitt struggled to untangle themselves from the netting.

"Yeesh, aren't these supposed to be dolphin safe or somethin'?" Fox whined. The fishermen stared in awe that the two ensnared foxes.

"These are bloomin' kits," exclaimed on of the fishermen.

"Actually, she's Kitt, and I'm Fox," the boy corrected them.

"How'd you two get in there!"

"Well… You see, it's a long story," Fox tittered sheepishly.

Hearing the commotion, the ship's captain came to see what was going on. "What the hell's the matter here?" he asked. Seeing the bound foxes, he whipped out a knife and began cutting them free. "How'd a couple o' kids get on this ship?" he asked with an accusing tone.

"We caught 'em in our net," one of the fishermen explained. Fox and Kitt pulled off their helmets and breathed the cool salty air in.

"Thanks," Fox thanked the captain, "We were scuba diving in the reefs when you guys accidentally pulled us up." The captain looked at him in disbelief. "Yeah, I know, these are space suits, but hey, make with what you got, right?"

"I ain't seen any boats for miles, how'd you get here?"

"Well, you see, ours kinda sorta sank, so we went diving for it and got kinda sort stuck," Fox lied, his nervousness made it look convincing though, "You wouldn't mind giving us a lift to Carentith, would you?"

"Well, since these barnacle brains did pick you up, I can't see why not," the captain agreed.

Hours passed before the ship came into Carentith's dock over by the Kokahmi Boardwalk. Fox stumbled out the ship and dropped to the wooden floor below, kissing it and spitting out the splinters he picked up on his lips. Kitt wobbled out as well, their legs needed a little time to adjust to the solid ground. Before them stood the massive metropolis of Carentith. In size, it made Corneria City look like a mere podunk, though the inhabitants of this place were not as permanent. Carentith was known for its benevolent tropical climate, and considered one of the best vacation spots in the entire Milky Way Galaxy.

Tourists hustled about the city on foot or in aircars, exploring the various districts, boardwalks, and beaches. Crowds passed about before the two vulpines, they took hesitation in using it to their advantage, slipping into the passing group as if they never existed. They looked cautiously about the city as they followed the crowd. Kitt tugged on Fox's sleeve and ducked into a nearby convenience store, pulling the confused boy inside with her.

"Welcome, welcome," greeted the shop owner, "Feel free to brows, but try not to carouse." He chuckled. He was an elderly fellow, a brown-furred raccoon, and very friendly and welcoming. There was something about him that eased the nervous vulpines. He looked at them kindly. "Is there something I can help you with," he asked politely.

"Oh, no. Nothing really. Just looking," Fox answered.

Kitt remained quiet for a moment. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, then whispered to the shopkeeper, "He was a nowhere man, living in a nowhere land, making up his nowhere plans, for no-one." Fox's ears perked upon hearing this, but he continued to browse the area unphased.

The gentleman paused for a second, the warm welcome smile slowly melted into a concerned stare. "I see," was his only reply. He turned away and began heading through a doorway leading into the back room of the store. He beckoned the young vixen to follow.

"Fox, wait out here," she told McCloud, heeding the call of the elderly raccoon, "There's something I have to speak to him about, in _private_." She turned and entered the door, shutting it behind her.

Fox sighed in boredom, he couldn't stand not being part of the action, but he knew to stay out as well. He leaned against a magazine rack and began thumbing through an issue of Play Fur.

A half hour passed and Kitt still hadn't showed. Fox had grown bored staring at the pictures of disrobed females and had slipped the naughty magazine into his jacket pocket. His attention now shifted to the latest Kazuki comic book, giggling at the comical antics of the crazy cartoon kitsune and his dragon sidekick, Shigeru. In the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of suspiciously familiar figure. Closing the comic and also slipping it into his pocket, he wandered out the door to investigate.

"Well, well, if it ain't ol' one eye," he snickered. The figure turned out to be a young male lupine, his body covered in grey fur and was dressed in a long dark trench coat with slate colored slacks and a white dress shirt. His left eye was scarred and covered by a black velvet eye patch.

"Not now, McCloud," the wolf sneered, trying to escape the attention of the young space pirate.

"Awww, come on Wolfy, is that any way to treat your pal?"

"I'm not your pal, dumbass. Now leave me alone."

"What's wrong? Did the Big Bad Wuff have a poopy day?"

The wolf stopped and glared at McCloud angrily. "I have a job to do," he growled, "Now why don't you take your yiff loving orange hide outta my way?"

"It's always the same with you cowboys, work, work, work. Yanno, all work and no play makes Wolfy a dull boy," the fox complained, "Looks like somebody could use a hug." He wrapped his arms around the wolf's body. The wolf struggled to pull himself out the grasp of the vulpine's mock-affections.

"What part of get lost don't you understand?" he snarled, pulling himself out of the boy's tight embrace.

"Um… Maybe the 'get' part, but I really don't know," Fox said acting ditzally before clinging onto the lupine's legs.

"That's it!" the wolf roared, kicking the boy off and onto the ground. He turned and made a mad dash down a vacant alley, hoping to lose his pest. He cautiously looked back to the fox, seeing an empty street behind him. Grinning he turned back forward, startled by the sight of McCloud now running backwards, now in front of him.

"Aww, come on Wolf, what's the hurry, at least you can tell me what'cha doin'," Fox coaxed.

"It ain't none of your business," Wolf growled, "And besides, that's Peace Keeper to you."

"Aww maaaan, that's a cool name, why didn't I think of it?" he whined, watching the lupine duck into the back door of a building. "Hay, wait up!" he shouted, scrambling into the building.

Inside the building was dark and musty. Streams of dust swirled in the gentle currents of air that blow in from the opening door. The room was empty of any signs of life, however, was full of boxes and creates of assorted goods stacked upon one another. Fox looked about the area for Wolf. Not finding him anywhere, his sights shifted to a box marked Twinkies.

McCloud ripped a hole in the boxes side and began shoveling the golden snack cakes into his mouth one by one. He choked a couple times after forgetting to remove the wrappers, sputtering tiny chunks of sponge cake and cream filling to the floor. His ears perked on end, scanning the area for the source of a group of faint shouting he could barely hear over his loud chewing. Pinpointing the target, she crept from box to box toward a shut door, his cheeks still full of the sugary goodness.

Behind the door he could make out three separate voices, two male and one female. He could only make a small handful of the words being thrown back and forth. It sounded like an argument was taking place in the other room, and it sounded quite serious. Fox jiggled the door's handle, discovering that it was locked. Locked doors were never a problem for him though, after all, what kind of space rogue would he be if he didn't know a thing or two about lock picking? Grinning mischievously, he pulled a small hairpin from his shoe's laces and inserted into the doors keyhole. He silently popped the lock open and slowly creaked the door.

"Look, I'm not here for trouble, just give me the disk and I'll be on my way."

"I don't have it!"

Those were the words Fox was greeted with as he tiptoed into the room. He quickly took cover behind a counter in front of him, it appears he had made his way into some sort of shop. He sat behind the desk listening in on the voices battle it out back and forth.

"You don't understand how important this could be, you're not safe to have it."

"I don't have the bloody disk, I told you already."

Fox slowly peeked up at the arguing parties. Recognizing the trio, he sprang up and seated himself onto the desk.

"Hey guys, I didn't know you knew each other," he shouted cheerfully, the arguing party stopped to stare at him, it was Wolf, Kitt and the shopkeeper he had met earlier. Leave it to Fox to lead the whole thing into one big circle.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kitt shouted at the grinning vulpine.

"Ain't ya happy to see me?" McCloud whined back.

"I gotta hand it to you, you and dumb luck seem to go hand in hand," Wolf thanked him.

"Aww, aren't we all a happy family? Ok everybody, group hug," cheered the fox, leaping from the counter and wrapping his arms around Kitt and Wolf. They both looked at him oddly as they pulled themselves free.

"Knock it off McCloud, I'm here for one thing and hugs ain't it," Wolf growled, then turned back to Kitt. "Look, I'll make you a deal, you give me the disk, and I pay you 50 grand, we split the reward 50/50," he tried to reason with her calmly.

"No dice, I told you I don't have it," she snapped.

"Disk? What's an old space cowboy like you want with a disk? I'll give you the disk if you pay me 50 grand," Fox piped in.

"You don't have the disk, dumbass," Wolf sighed looking at the foolhardy vulpine.

"… Or do I?" Fox snickered, slipping a small, flat, circular object from the pocket hidden under the yellow stripe of his grass-colored pants. He arrogantly spun the disk on his right index finger as everyone's attention quickly shifted to him.

"How… How did you get that!" Kitt barked, checking her own pockets.

"You have it!" the wolf said in shock, "Fine, if that's the way you want it, then the 50,000 kei is yours."

"Nope, changed my mind," he smirked, tossing the disk into the air and catching it with his right hand before pocketing it again. "I bet this baby could get me even more on the black market. Tootles." The bells jingled as he scrambled back out of the building.

"Shit," Wolf huffed under his breath as he charged after the fleeing fox. Kitt joined pursuit quickly behind him.

Fox dove out onto the busy sidewalk in front of him, weaving in and out of the startled crowds. Wolf shoved his way in hot pursuit of McCloud, and Kitt right on O'Donnell's tail. The trio rushed through the crowd of people, leaping over benches and tables, scrambling over bike racks, and climbing over railings. Hoping to confuse the angry lupine, Fox dove between the legs of a young female zebra wearing a bright sun-dress, popping out in front of her with a wide devilish grin as she called for the authorities, creating a slight blockage of pedestrians in front of O'Donnell. This finally gave Kitt the opportunity to reached Fox's pursuer and tackled him, however she was unable to bring the wolf down. Fortunately she did slow him a bit until he pulled her off and tossed her into a nearby alley. Stunned, she glared at him before pulling herself to her feet, by then he had disappeared into the groups of passing people.

The streets of Carentith were just as busy as the sidewalks as hordes of aircars zoomed about at the will of the traffic signals. The light remained green for quite some time, Fox never was know for his patience, as he darted right into the heat of traffic. He flipped over and sprang off his hands onto a passing aircar. Wolf stared in awe as he watched his prey hitch a ride on an unsuspecting driver's vehicle. Fox waved at the lupine as the vehicle lead him downtown miles away.

"Go Fox, go Fox, it's your birthday," Fox chanted to himself as he danced atop the aircar. He did not notice the shady pair lurking in a darkened alley, however, they he was the one who wasn't unnoticed.

"That's him, ain't it," scowled on of the spectators, a suspicious rat dressed in a navy dress suit. The other was an equally shady looking red panda cloaked in a dark trench coat.

"45 grand, the kid's price just keeps goin' up," chucked his companion, lighting a cigarette sitting upon his lips. "StarFox isn't a small fry no more, bustin' outta the GP like that, he's got balls. But he's in the big leagues now." They hopped onto a pair of hoverbikes and silently stalked the unsuspecting vulpine.

Fox waited until he was well beyond the street he had met O'Donnell at, assuming his safety, he hopped of the vehicle's roof onto the pavement below. Whipping out the comic he had pilfered, he casually strolled along the sidewalk. Blindly following the direction he was facing, fate led him into a vacant parking garage. His giggling washed away into a disappointed moan as it became too dark to distinct the images on the paper. Sighing, he slid the comic back into his pocket.

"Alright, you can show yourself, I know you're there," he said calmly to the dimly lit room around him. Behind him, the shadowy pair emerged, both pointing a handgun to his back.

"Do you have any idea how much you're worth?" asked the rat in a gravelly voice.

"More then you'll ever get," McCloud boasted, "I'm disappointed, I'dve thought that you bounty hunters would be more of a challenge. I could hear you coming a mile away."

"Those are fighting words," replied the panda just as calmly, "If you're looking for trouble, you just found it."

"Bring it on." Fox slapped his bushy tail against their hands, knocking the weapons to the floor. He followed through with a turn kick aimed at the panda's jaw. The panda quickly reacted and grabbed ahold of the vulpine's right foot, painfully twisting it and dropping the pirate to the floor. Fox use the opportunity to slap the fallen handguns into the shadows. The rat growled, throwing punches at McCloud, who rolled about dodging the incoming blows. However, his dexterity was severely hindered by his leg still being in the panda's clutches and was eventually harnessed down. Fox yelped as a balled fist collided with his left eye. He continued to struggle to get free, but remained pinned down.

The panda, who had been holding McCloud's legs down, suddenly dropped beside him. Fox didn't let the opportunity to go to waste, kicking the rat off of him.

"Miss me?" Sandy orange hands wearing a red biker glove reached out and pulled the fox to his feet. The vixen flicked her pink and blonde bangs out of her face and grinned at her friend.

"Thanks Kitt!" Fox thanked her. Their reunion was cut short as the two bounty hunters each took attack on one of the foxes. The two vulpines flowed with the blows, fluidly dodging each attack and returning their own. They fought like clockwork, their moves were perfectly synchronized with each other's. They both threw a succession of punches and kicks as the caught and dodged that of their opponents. Fox finished his attacker with a rolling kick, sending the panda flying into a pillar and dropping unconscious. The rat frantically drew his trump card, a small explosive which he tossed at the vixen. It exploded in mid-air a few feet from her, the blast threw her into one of the few parked aircars. She too fell out cold.

Fox growled as he lunged for the rat. A sudden burst of pain rang from his left shoulder stopping him in his tracks. Blood trickled from the wound, he finally realized he was shot. He glanced back and saw the panda stagger back to his feet, one of the handguns Fox had knocked out of the way had reached his hands. Fox clamped his hand on his wound, the bullet had passed all the way through his body, leaving holes on both sides.

Fox looked back at the two hunters who were now closing in on him. His wound hurt like crazy, but that was the least of his worries. He was more concerned with what they might do to Kitt, who remained unconscious against the pillar. He watched as the panda pulled the trigger. Everything felt as if it were in slow motion, all he could hear was the beating of his own heart. The bullet inched its way out of the weapon, crawling its way right toward his spine. The bullet spiraled toward him. Inches before it hit him, he moved. Everything returned to normal speed, the bullet zinged past its target and into the wall behind it. The hunters stared at him in awe, he had just dodged the blazing shard of lead as if it were standing still. Fox seemed to have finally noticed how dangerous the hunters really were, freezing up and nervously shaking about letting out a nervous whine. The bounty hunters quickly shook out of awe and both aimed their weapons, surely he couldn't dodge both attacks.

That was the last thing they though before dropping to the floor. Fox turned around and looked at them. He knelt beside hunters, checking their pulse. He was relieved to see that they were still alive, just asleep. His eyes caught something strange, a tiny bolt remained lodged in each of their necks. He plucked one of the bolts and examined it, it was tipped with an odd residue. He laughed to himself, "Thanks, Peacekeeper," he muttered to himself.

On a level above Fox, O'Donnell smirked devilishly, flicking a burn out cigarette to the floor below. He pulled his sleeve back over his right arm, covering the tiny crossbow that had been mounted on it. He silently turned his back and walked out of the building.

Hours passed, Kitt had regained consciousness and the bounty hunters were found neatly wrapped before Carentith's police station from a mysterious "friend." Fox had gotten his wound treated back at the shop. Kitt handed the disk he had taken to the shopkeeper.

"Thanks much, I'll make sure this gets to the proper authorities before they try to get it back. Yup, we're sure throwing a monkey wrench in that ape's plans," chuckled the old shopkeeper. "Don't worry, I wont turn you guys in. But there's a little something I've been meaning to talk to you about boy," he turned to McCloud and softly told him in a serious tone, "Don't think I don't know about the Twinkies and magazines you took from me. I think it'll be proper for you to pay for those by scrubbing the toilets out in the back there, no?" He pointed out to the restrooms in the back, they looked as if they hadn't been cleaned in ages. "I kinda fell behind on that, my back isn't what it used to be yanno. Good to see today's youth willing to lend a hand," he handed a scrub brush to the fox and sent him on his way.

"Oh well, beats being in jail at least," Fox whined to himself as he set out to do his job. "Easy come, easy go."


	4. Episode 4: Luck Be A Lady

Disclaimer: Fox, Slippy, and all related characters are copyrighted to Nintendo. Gains was created by my friend TMK and is co-owned by him and me. All other characters are of my creation and belong to me, unless specified otherwise.

Episode 4: Luck be a Lady

Regal City, Corneria

August 2, 2477

2:00 PM

Slippy frantically punched the keys of the computer in his hotel room. It had been several days since he last heard from his partner and had to find him before the GP did. Wherever McCloud was, he was definitely covering his tracks. Slippy gulped down his third ice cappuccino, he had been searching for his friend's whereabouts since 3 AM and the caffeine was the only thing keeping him from crashing right where he was. His only lead was reports of a stolen GP ship crashing into the surface of Planet Aquas, but the pilot was never found, it was a safe bet that McCloud was still in Carentith, but the city's sheer massive size made it a hunt for a needle in the proverbial haystack to find him. Currently there was no record of any of McCloud's aliases checking in or out at any of the known hotels or spaceports anywhere in the city. The Fennix Star space port, the only one on the planet, was closed by the GP to make sure the pirate cannot escape, which meant nobody was going to be entering or exiting the planet. He groaned and shook off the grogginess as he continued his hunt.

"Message from ShadowHellKatt. Do you accept?" a text box on the computer asked him. The bewildered toad started at the box before clicking the text button.

"Hiiiiiiii!1!11!" a new dialogue box said. "What'cha up 2?"

Slippy rubbed his bloodshot eyes and responded, "Huh? Who are you?"

"I'm me. P"

"No seriously, who are you?"  
"That's for me 2 no and u 2 find out."

"What do you want?"

"I wana help."

"Help, with what?"

"Find ur friend, silly. pokes P"

"My friend?"

"Yeah, ur budy StarFox."

"What?"

"Lol, chek out Neo Vegas on Eledard, ull find him there. 3"

"How did you know I was looking for him?"

"I have mah ways. ;)"

"And what makes you so sure he'll be there?"

"His only off da plaent is on teh Silver Fox, tahts where theyl b dockng next."

"And you know this, how?"

"Um… Internet?"

"Wait, you're a hacker aren't you?"

"U say haxor leik it's a bad thng."

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"I already told u I jsut want 2 help. Uh oh, I gtg. Bai bai."

_Who was that?_ Slippy thought to himself. He was unsure whether to believe this mysterious person's words or not. He sat there staring at his screen for a while trying to contemplate why a hacker would want to help him. It could also be a trap for all he knew, being the partner of StarFox, he was considered to be equally dangerous to society and bounty hunters will stop at nothing to bring him in. It was risky, but he was going to take the gamble, it's what Fox would do anyways.

Meanwhile back in Carentith, Fox contently swept the isles of the local convenience store. His left shoulder was still sore, his wound was cleanly bandaged and medicated and already started healing. He decided to lay low for a while, the shopkeeper graciously let him and Kitt work at the shop and even brought in a couple old mattresses and blankets into the back room so that the had a place to stay. The old man was kind enough to do all that for them, Fox didn't have the heart to steal from the shop.

"Ok chief, how's it look?" Fox said cheerfully. The shop had been thoroughly cleaned and the restrooms even sparkled.

The old shopkeeper looked at the boy and smiled. "Wonderful job my boy," he praised the fox, "You've sure been a great help."

Fox bent down to pick up the dustpan and emptied it in the trash. "So tell me, how is it you knew the password?" he asked.

"I used to be a free spirit back in my youth. Many years ago, I was once a Dragon, but that was so long ago."

"Dragon? You mean you were a pirate too?"

"That is correct, but now I prefer to live on the right side of the law. I do keep connections with them though."

"And what about Kitt? Is she one too?"

"Well… I'm not really that sure. I keep pretty informed with their activities, I guess you can take the man out of the Dragons, but not the Dragon out of the man," he laughed, "But I've never seen her before in my life, hearing her say the password was quite a shock to me. I can't quite figure out how she was able to pick up that disk either… I've heard much about you though. Quite the risk taker I hear, never backing down, never giving up, no doubt you are the son of the James McCloud."

Fox felt uneasy hearing his father's name. James McCloud, the leader of the great StarWing team, he was a great hero and a legend among everyone familiar with anything Lylat. It was an insult to his father to speak of him and James Senior in the same breath.

"Ah yes, I remember him. A great man he was, quite noble. 'Tis a shame what happened to him, truly tragic. He and Captain Vulpin were quite close friends."

"My dad and Aurelio went way back," Fox said, rubbing the back of his head, "They were old pals from back in their days in the Cornerian academy. He made my old man an honorary member even, and my dad made him one of his own team."

"Aurelio quit the Dragons a long time ago," the old man informed the fox, "His son, Horatio, inherited his father's ship and crew. He's a good boy, but a bit brash and reckless."

"I see."

"Sounds kinda familiar, no?" the old man chuckled, "When he's not getting himself drunk or gambling his loot away, he out picking trouble with the GP. His arrogance is gonna get him in trouble someday…"

"Sounds like a regular party animal," Fox smirked, "Do ya think he could get me off this planet, the GP's got the only space port on the planet blocked to make sure I don't escape."

"His ship docks out on the northern side of town to refuel and restock. He might be able to get you off this planet without the GP suspecting a thing."

"Thanks, I gotta get going, Slip's waitin' for me," Fox exclaimed, "Thanks a lot."

The old man looked at him with a deeply concerned expression. "You can't run forever, you know," he said, the tone of his voice lacked the warm jolliness it normally had. "Sooner or later the truth will catch up. You have to face it someday."

"What do you mean? I… I don't follow."

"Just promise me you'll be careful kid, ok?" The old raccoon opened a drawer underneath his cash register. He pulled out a small electronic device and tossed it to Fox. The boy stared at it blankly. "Take it, I have no need for it anymore anyways."

"What is it?"

"It creates a light barrier around your body, the charge is pretty weak so it only lasts a few seconds, but it can deflect most gunfire. It's pulled me through some pretty tough times, and should do so for you."

"Uh… Thanks?"

The familiar warmth returned to the shopkeeper's face, "You better get going, they plan to take off tonight." Fox smiled and waved to the old man as he left the building.

He stared at the strange device he had been given as he pondered over the old man's words. _I have to face the truth someday?_ he thought, stepping out onto the sidewalk. In the corner of his eye, he spotted a small figure peeking at him from behind the corner of the building before it slipped back into the alley. Fox shrugged and continued on his way.

An hour and a half later Fox found himself standing outside a dark bar. The words "The Black Dagger" were written upon a sign above the door. He shrugged, it was a good a place as any to look, at least he could pick up a few free pretzels. He pushed against the door, coughing as the cigarette smoke dove into his lungs.

He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the dark smoky environment. Tables were full with suspicious characters. The clatter of billiard balls colliding with each other added an unusual beat to the funky blues music playing on the jukebox and swirling babble of conversation. A roaring laughter cut through the orchestra of the barroom. In the back of the room, a heated game of poker was played out among a quartet of shady characters. The group consisted of a brown furred, green haired, slippery looking 30 year old weasel, a red feathered parrot, a saucy female kangaroo with aquamarine hair and caramel fur, and an orange furred fox who appeared to be in his early 20's and who's left arm had been replaced with a robotic equivalent. The fox, who was seated opposite of the other players, laughed heartily as he downed a half bottle of scotch. Fox moseyed over to the group, intrigued by the ruckus they were making.

"Make yer bets fellas, I'm fellin' lucky," laughed the fox, slapping his mechanical hand onto the table.

"Don't be countin' your chickens before they hatch," snickered the parrot, looking at his hand.

"You're mine this time," smirked the roo.

"Well, I fold," conceded the weasel, placing his hand upon the table.

The fox spread his hand upon the table, "Read 'em and weep fellas," he boasted, picking up his winnings of kei notes. He looked up at the boy peeking in on their game. " 'Ey kid! You wanna join or something?" He shouted to McCloud.

Fox bewilderedly stared at the group, his cheeks full of pretzels and a couple olives he swiped on his way over. "Mwe?" he asked, pointing at himself.

The fox laughed and nodded the boy over. Fox swallowed the contents of his mouth and took seat between the weasel and the parrot. "You know 'ow ta play, right kid?" the older vulpine asked. Fox nodded and received his hand. The door opened again, and was followed by several quips and cat calls. Fox looked back and groaned. _What the hell's she doing here!_ he though staring wide eyed as his vixen friend, Kitt, entered the bar. She shot menacing glares at the hooting and whistling men she passed.

"Got any threes?" McCloud asked smoothly trying to ignore Kitt's presence. The fox nodded and grinned back at him.

"This ain't no kid's game," he replied.

"Well, I'm no kid," Fox quipped.

"Is that so? You talk pretty big for someone your age."

"I know a thing or two about talking the talk _and_ walking the walk."

"Why don't you show me then?" The older fox grinned.

"Gladly," Fox replied, nodding the other fox to follow him.

The two stepped outside the bar. The older fox smugly placed his metallic fist against his hip. "So, ya speak Pirate's Cant, eh? Pretty impressive for a boy," He smirked. "So what's yer business here?"

"I'm looking for the son of Aurelio Vulpin, it's quite important."

The older fox laughed heartily. "Yer lookin' at 'im kid. Hortaio Vulpin in the flesh, except for this 'ere arm o' mine. Now what business do ya bring me?"

"Well, you see, the space port is closed and I really need to get to Eledard as soon as possible. I've heard that you have a ship and might be able to help me out."

"Eledard, eh? Well, I might be able to help, for a price that is. Let's see, 'ow's about 500 kei?"

"FIVE HUNDRED!" Fox exclaimed. His wasn't given a chance to protest. A shifty looking coyote came crashing out one of the bar's front windows. The two foxes stared inside with bedazzlement at the commotion taking place. A classic barroom brawl was underway as a group of shady characters surrounded a familiar vixen. One by one they challenged her, the first was a toothy rat armed with a broken liquor bottle. He took a swing at her, but was met half way with a foot in his armpit. The vixen grabbed hold of his arm and tossed him into an oncoming jaguar. From the left, a knife-wielding iguana took charge at her to be greeted by two roundhouse kicks. The vixen leaped up and clung to his neck with her legs, flipped her body over, and launched him into and other group of troublemakers. Fed up with their defeat, the group went full melee on her, launching an assault of fists upon the girl. She was a little too quick for them, catching their attacks with her hand and returning her own on them. She may have had the advantage, but she wouldn't be able to hold onto it for much longer.

In the corner of Fox's eyes, he spotted a grinning, handgun-toting hyena standing on the sidelines, trying to lock onto the young vixen into his sights. Fox took no hesitation and charged in on the hyena, tackling him to the ground. The sound of the gun firing rang out throughout the building as the bullet rocketed into on of the overhead lamps and shattered the bulb inside. Now everyone in the bar became involved, a portion of the group attacking the vixen quickly became fixated on the young pirate, who sat upon the hyena's chest, struggling over the gun. Several other bullets fired, finding their final resting places within the bar's walls.

A devilish grin slid onto Captain Vulpin's face as he dove through the window and rolled into the center of the group, right beside the vixen. " 'Ey there missy, looks like you could use a hand," he flirted, grappling one of her attackers with his robotic arm and heaving him onto the pool table.

"Sod it," she snapped, slamming one of her fists into the gut of a nearby attacker. "I can take care of myself."

"Hi Kitt, what'cha doing?" Fox asked backing up from an attacking jaguar. He backed right into a vacant table, bumping it and knocking over a few empty bottle resting upon it. Having nowhere to go, he hopped up onto the table and grabbed a pair of the glass containers and began twirling them around.

"Wyyyyyaaaaaaaaaa!" He screamed as he spun the bottles around in his hand, "You wanna mess with Jackie Chimp? Well do ya?" With that his grip on the bottle in his right hand came undone, and the bottle in his hand slipped right out and hurtled to the floor. "Time out!" the boy shouted as he scrambled to find a replacement. Quite perturbed, the jaguar kicked the boy in his rear, causing him to faceplant on all fours. "Owwww… No fair, I said time out," the boy whined, rubbing his sore backside. He climbed to his feet and glared at his opponent. "Ok, time in," Fox said, flipping up the table, slapping it right in the face of his attacker.

He quickly whipped around to see two would be attackers fall face first to the floor behind him. Behind them winked the kangaroo that had been playing cards with Vulpin. She then sweeped two more attackers off their feet with one swift kick, grappling one with her legs as he fell and hurling him into the crowd before leaping in herself and vanishing in the sea of fighters.

The weasel and parrot that also had been playing cards in the back slapped each other a high five as they saw their companions join the fray. Reaching under their table, the weasel drew a sniper rifle. He cocked it, aimed, and fired on a hound sneaking up behind Fox. The hound dropped at Fox's back, a tiny dart lodged in his neck. "That should keep him for a couple hours," the weasel snickered.

The parrot leapt from the table, hurtling a handful of his red feathers like knives at an armed wildcat. The feathers snagged loose bit of the cat's clothing and pinned him against the wall, causing him to drop his gun. Fox quickly rolled through the crowd and retrieved the fallen weapon. He quickly released the ammo clip letting the bullets rain to the floor, then chucked the disarmed weapon at a ferret lurking in the corner who was suspiciously opening a wooden case to reveal a 1930's style Tommy gun.

The act bought Fox a precious sliver of seconds before a storm of bullets wailed toward him, just inches behind his bushy orange tail. The boy scrambled to draw the fire away from the unsuspecting combatants. He leapt up onto the bar's counter, his right foot snagging the edge, bringing him face down to the polished wooden surface below. Upon impact, he quickly rolled back onto his feet, the hail of bullets growing ever so close to his fuzzy body. He scurried across the counter, glass bottles resting upon the wall-mounted shelves exploded from the hail of bullets. Glass and liquor rained down upon the evasive pirate. Fox hissed from the burn he felt as the alcoholic contents splashed onto his wounded shoulder. The end of the line quickly approached as McCloud stayed one step in front of the bullets. Ahead of him stood a solid wall on the other end of the counter.

The boy refused to stop, or even lower his speed, as he came within inches of the wall. Instead he leapt right to the wooden barrier. Pushing off the wall with his legs, he was able to backflip up and over the rain of bullets. The counter's surface was slick from the spilt booze, McCloud was unable to maintain control of his landing and slammed back first into the glass-covered surface. Squinting in pain, he instinctively rolled off behind the counter.

Cowering behind the counter were the barkeeper and waitress, the only two people not participating in the brawl. They stared wide-eyed at the battered body that lay near them. Fox groaned as he slowly sat up, looking upon the frightened couple. He smiled softly and reassured then, "Don't worry, you're safe here, it'll be over soon." Despite his comforting tones, they still huddled together in fear. Fox waited for the brief intermission of fire before making his move. As soon as the barrage of bullets ceased, he quickly pounced up onto the counter, springing from it into the air. He grabbed onto a handing lamp and swung off it Tarzan-style, sailing feet first into the ferret's face.

The impact hurled the weapon beneath the rumbling feet of the fighters. Both McCloud and the ferret scrambled on all fours after the thrown gun. A steel-toed boot crunched down on Fox's right hand, he sharply bit down on his lip to quell the pain as the ferret gained a comfortable lead. The ferret snickered as his reached for his weapon, then suddenly dropped on top of it. A dart sat lodged in the back of his right leg. Fox looked up to see the green-haired weasel pass him a thumbs up. He sheepishly returned an embarrassed peace-sign, not paying attention to where he was crawling until it was too late. Rising to his knees, he noticed something wasn't quite right. Draped around his head floated a soft lavender skirt as he stared at a pair of denim clad knees. Even though the legs were clothed by blue jeans, he couldn't help but form a lewd grin before recognizing who they belonged to. By then it was too late…

"You PERVERT!" barked a very perturbed Kitt. That was the last thing he could recall, then everything went black.

The sun shined brightly, the birds chirped, a gentle breeze caressed the grassy knoll around a happy vulpine family. A young vixen, in her early to mid-twenties, held her two-year-old kit gently on her lap as she watched her husband straiten out a red checkered cloth.

"Buhwerfry!" exclaimed the child, reaching out at a golden butterfly flittering about a patch of wildflowers nearby.

"Yes, sweetie, that's right, a butterfly," his mother cooed. He looked up at her with his wide jade eyes and giggled before crawling out of her lap to investigate the creature. He gurgled contently as he pounced upon the insect, watching it fly away seconds before he could reach it. It never moved far, as if teasing the child to follow it. He rolled about in the grass happily as he followed his new "friend," his parents watching him contently.

"Beautiful day, isn't it Vix?" the child's father sighed, resting his head onto her lap. His wife looked down on him with her pale blue eyes and gently caressed the short golden hair on his head. The two chuckled as their offspring bounded after the fluttering insect. The boy toddled after the butterfly through the soft grass. His mother smiled at her mate, brushing a few strands of her long amber hair from her face.

The butterfly changed its path and floated toward the happy couple, closely followed by the excited toddler. "Hey there sport," said the child's father, lifting him into the air above his face. The child screeched with delight before reaching down at his father's red bandana. The boy grabbed ahold of the colorful piece of cloth with his chubby hands, his father laughed with amusement. "That's my lucky bandana you got there kiddo. Someday it'll be yours, but right now I need it," he chuckled. The boy let out another cheerful screech as his parents looked upon him contently.

Fox groaned as he finally regained consciousness. He groggily sat up rubbing his head, feeling the newly created lump on it. He looked about in shock at his new surroundings, it appeared to be in some sort of doctor's office. Beneath him was a cold metal bed resting next to a well ornamented in an unusual combination of medical charts and photos of scantly clad female furries. The room was painted white, with a single desk full of drawers standing opposite of him. After a while, the boy realized that only his green pants were clothing him. Frantically, he searched the room with his eyes for the rest of his clothing, finding it neatly piled in the adjacent corner. He quickly leapt down to the floor and picked out his red bandana, he wouldn't dare be caught dead, or alive for that matter, without it. As he tied his precious piece of red cloth around his neck, he noticed that his wound had vanished completely, leaving only a tiny scar in its place.

"Don't worry, it's healed," informed a gruff voice emitting from a figure standing in the hallway, "Been wondering when you'd wake up." The stranger stepped into the room revealing himself to be the weasel from the bar. "The name's Roger Gains, used to be a medic in Corneria's eighth infantry division. Now, I run all you see here."

_Some medic_, Fox smugly thought to himself, watching the weasel pop a bent cigarette in his mouth and light it.

"Yeah, I know it's bad for me," the weasel chuckled, catching the expression on the boy's face as he lit the cigarette.

"So… How did… You..?" Fox asked, nodding his head at his newly healed wound.

"Oh that? Just a little hormone spray to get your body to repair itself quickly, still in the experimental stages mind you. The side effects are mild, just things like headaches, dizziness, and brain tumors, nothing different than using a cell phone," he laughed, looking at the worried expression on the boy's face. He then added in more serious tone, "I'm joking. You're probably more worried about where you are and all anyways. Well, take a look for yourself," Gains lead the boy to a window in the hallway. Fox's mouth dropped to see the planet Aquas travel father and farther into the distance.

"You shanghaied me!"

"Not really, this _is_ what yer asking for StarFox," replied another voice, this one more hearty than that of Gains. Fox looked back and saw young Captain Vulpin standing next to him. "Ya wanted offa this planet, didn't you?"

"Well… yeah…"

"And that's what ya got. Welcome aboard the Silver Fox. It looks like Roger 'ere did a fine job patchin' you up."

"But… Wait…"

"You can thank yer girlfriend, she's the one who got you on here."

"She's not my…"

"With a punch like 'ers, I ain't saying 'no.'" Gains and Vulpin laughed. Fox continued looking out of the window.

"How much is it gonna cost me?" he finally asked.

"Not a thing… Just as long as you accept the yer girlfriend's terms."

"I told you, she's not my… Terms, what terms?"

"Ah, that's right, ya were catchin' forty winks when we discussed it." The captain laughed, " 'Ere's the deal, you and your girl ride free as long as you do us a little favor while on Eledard. O' Course that'll be discussed when we arrive." The boy said nothing, just looked at the captain suspiciously. "We _could _always just turn back and let you deal with the police…"

"Fine, I accept, but it better be worth it."

"That's the spirit," The fox laughed, but his words all went beyond the boy's head, who stared blankly out the window. Fox squinted his eyes, blinked twice, even rubbed them. They quickly grew wide enough to land a spacecraft in them, his bold orange fur stood on end, hiding the flushed skin underneath. He said nothing, just continued staring out the window.

"Are you ok, boy?" Horatio asked, putting his hand on McCloud's shoulder. The boy nearly leapt twenty feet into the air.

"Di… Didn't you see her!" Fox ask, his body still trembling from the jolt.

"See 'er?" The captain asked.

"Her… Outside… There was this lady… She was out there! And she… She was… There!" Fox replied hysterically.

The men looked at him quizzically. "Lady?" the asked in unison, looking out the window themselves and seeing only vast emptiness of space around them. Fox could tell by their puzzled and concerned expression that there was no way they'd believe him. How could they? It wasn't everyday that you see a beautiful young vixen staring in from outer space. It isn't even possible, nothing can survive out there, but Fox knew what he saw. She was there, looking in at him with her cerulean eyes. Her long blue braided hair flowed in the gentle solar winds, as did the white silk gown she wore. Her body was delicately covered in short white and sky colored fur from her head to her toes. But stood out in his mind the most was that she had not one, or even two, but three bushy tails floating behind her. Her image remained etched in his brain, she looked so sad and confused, lost even.

"Side effects include hallucinations…" Gains muttered to himself.

"Hallucinations, yeah…" Fox sighed. _Maybe it was just a hallucination,_ he thought to himself. He looked out into the black vastness one last time, pressing his hand against the cool glass.

"What the hell is THAT!" Gains exclaimed as the trio witnessed a peculiar blue streak shoot across the sky. Almost instantly, the ship jolted quickly, the shock threw the three pirates to the floor.

"Sir, we're under attack! Five imperial Shock Ravens firing from 2 O'clock," A voice on the PA announced. Outside, five small black fighter ships charged toward the large lumbering spacecraft carrying the pirates. The small crafts raced in to attack, letting out a rain of white laser fire upon the large ship's titanium hull. The ship rocked again from the blow.

"Shit!" Vulpin roared, "Roger, take the boy to 'is friend and make sure they stay outta the way!" The room flared with reds lights and the ear-shattering wail of the alarm. The ship jolted again, throwing young McCloud face first into the window.

"Holy Chocolate Éclairs!" Fox shouted. Pushing himself off the glass, he spotted a second fleet of spacecrafts way out in the front waiting for them. This one included four more of the same small fighters as well as slightly larger attack cruiser. In the blink of an eye they instantly disappeared. He spun past the weasel and began hurrying down the hallway, trying desperately to keep balance through the ship's rocking. Not knowing where he was heading, Fox began frantically opening every door in the hallway. _One of these has to be it_, he thought to himself searching for the cockpit. Upon opening one of the doors, he was met with a shrilling scream of a shocked lady in the midst of suiting up for battle. Glowing red with embarrassment, the boy quickly shut the door. Grinning deviously, he slowly opened it back up and peeked inside, to be greeted with a projectile blaster in his face. Defensively, he slammed the door shut again, then picked up the object. It was primitive, and the fuel cells were completely depleted, but since Fox was otherwise unarmed, he slipped the old weapon into his coat pocket. Having the sense knocked back into, he returned to his main objective.

Having opened nearly every room on the ship, the boy finally found his way to the cockpit. The room looked much like the cabin of an old pirate ship, complete with the traditional wooden spoked steering wheel. The navigation equipment was primitive and outdated, some of it even dated way back to the twenty-first century even. Assorted crewmembers maintained the equipment as Captain Vulpin navigated the large spacecraft through enemy fire, unaware of the ambush in store for him.

"Turn back, it's a trap," Fox panted, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and stared at the boy. "They have reinforcements out in front waiting to ambush under cloaking devices."

"A trap you say?" The captain looked at the boy suspiciously.

"Sir, take a look on the radar," a crew called to the captain, "They appear to be trying to chase us North-West. Apparently there's a cluster of Invader 1 spacecrafts 7600 miles in that direction. This must be what the boy speaks of." Vulpin said nothing as he started turning the massive wooden wheel, trying to pull the ship out of the Raven's attack formation.

"Captain, we're receiving an incoming transmission from the lead ship," another crew member alerted Horatio before activating the communication screen. An image of an angry reptilian officer dressed in the black uniform of the Androssian Empire appeared before the crew.

"Hold it right there thieves, we know you have it," he hissed.

"What the hell are you talkin' about!" snarled Vulpin, "We ain't got nothing of yours."

"Liars! Hand over the Project now or we will destroy your ship," the officer roared. Surrounding the ship, handfuls of imperial crafts began reveling themselves. "You have been warned."

"Shit! There's gotta be at least a 'undred o' 'em," Horatio growled. "There's no way we can beat 'em all. Attention crew! Full power to the main thrusters! We're gonna ram right through those sonofabitches." Vulpin's crew immediately followed his orders, diverting all power to the main engines. The wily fox began turning the wheel again, navigating the ship to a small group of starfighters. "If we can get through this cluster of ships, we might just be able to pull into hyperspace," he grinned.

"Hyperspace? But there's not a gate around, there's now way we'd make it," Fox cried.

"Ah, you don't know the Silver Fox. She may be old, but 'er 'yperdrive engine is top notch," The captain laughed, "She don't need no gates to make the jump."

"All systems go, sir."

"Yeah! 'Ere we go!" The vulpine cackled, thrusting the acceleration lever forward. The ship rocketed straight toward the tiny cluster of fighters before it rapidly increasing in speed. Within seconds the metallic behemoth plowed right through its barrier with ease. Fox sighed in relief as he saw the ship's pilots eject safely from their spacecrafts. However, through the collision, one of the small crafts scraped across the ship's side, slicing off its primary right wing, and the vital thruster attached to it. Merely yards away, the large ship began to drift out of control.

"DAMMIT!" The vulpine captain roared, pounding his metallic fist into a piece of machinery nearby as he saw his right wing slowly drift beside him, reducing it into a mangled up sparking piece of junk. The attacking fleet were able to keep up with the ease. Pulling a small square bottle from his pocket and taking a drink, Horatio muttered, "Looks like we're fightin'."

"What!" Fox cried, his mouth nearly hitting the floor as he heard that.

"If we go down, we go down fighting," the captain said, "We lost one of our vital engines, there's no way we can outrun them." Though the captain's face remained emotionless, his eyes quivered with unease. "It'll take hours before it can be repaired, even with Nanites." He gave his crew the signal and they immediately shifted to a full offensive manner.

"Weapons are ready sir."

"Well, let's 'ope Lady Luck is with is today." The captain smirked, taking one last gulp from his bottle before tossing it aside. The small glass container plummeted to the floor, stopping inches before smashing into brown shards on the cold steel floor. Everything in the room came to a halt, the entire crew became frozen still focused on what they were doing at the moment. Outside the attacking ships remained silently still. A single blue streak zipped through the motionless scene. It zigzagged though the stationary spacecrafts. It eventually found it's place behind the large pirate ship before quietly dying out. Seconds later, a large blue flame burst from the ship's rear, rocketing the craft at an alarming rate.

Life finally returned to the room. The glass bottle crashed across the metal floor into countless pieces. "Sir, you're not gonna believe this, but we're in hyperspace," a startled crewmember exclaimed. Outside, stars looked like white streaks as they rocketed past the ship. Everyone stared in amazement and shock around them.

"What the blazes..?" Vulpin gasped. The piece of equipment he had recently smashed had somehow been reassembled. As strange as that was, outside, the missing wing was also reattached. The captain scratched his head in puzzlement, it was as if what had happened, never did. "Man, I gotta stop drinkin'." He laughed, throwing his robotic arm around the boy's shoulder. "I'm startin' ta see things."

Fox laughed nervously, "Yeah, I guess so." He looked out the window one last time. For a second, he though he saw a tiny blue light sparkle before fading into the darkness. "I guess so."


	5. Episode 5: Viva Neo Vegas

As always, Fox and company are property of Nintendo. All other characters are mine unless specified otherwise. Everything else is copyrighted to their owners.

Episode 5: Viva Neo Vegas

Eledard Orbit

August 3, 2477

9:05 PM

The sky was a clear blue with nary a cloud within miles. The birds were chirping and the sun shined down on the grassy fields. A sneaky white-furred multi-tailed fox, carrying the traditional green traveler's sack, slipped from behind one tree to another, completely concealing himself from view behind its inch thick trunk. His head peaked out of what seemed like nothing to view the greedy Panda Emperor fill up his identical sack with the money of his raggedy subjects.

The kitsune slipped back behind the tree for a fraction of a second, this time stepping out dressed in a fancy kimono, a black hair bun, and geisha makeup on his face. He held a paper fan to conceal his face as he giggled and approached the Panda Emperor. The Emperor's heart pounded out of his chest as he howled and whistled at the approaching "girl." The Fox giggled and brushed up against the Panda Emperor seductively, switching sacks as the Emperor tried to win a kiss from "her." The kitsune pushed away and threw off his disguise, revealing his identity to the furious panda. He waved a few coins before the Panda Emperor, the bewildered villain checked his own back, only to find a large lit bomb with a skull on it inside. The bomb quickly exploded, leaving the Panda Emperor a crispy black as the kitsune dashed away with the loot.

Fox laughed hysterically at the antics of his cartoon hero. He had seen the episode before him ever since he was a little kit, but it never failed to leave him bawling with laughter. He was too busy rubbing a tear out of his eye and catching his breath to notice Kitt seat herself beside him on the couch.

"Aren't you a little old for watching cartoons?" She asked, leaning back and folding her hands behind her back to rest her head in them. Fox took a three second glimpse at her before returning his attention back to the television.

"Nah, you're never too old for Kazuki," he replied, still glued to the screen, "They're classics."

"Kid stuff if you ask me," she muttered, blowing the blonde and pink curl out of her face. She stared at the ceiling, thinking about the task they must do to pay for their ride. She looked at him again and then quietly groaned, "There's no way he'll be able to pull it off."

"Sin City dead ahead, you kids better get ready," the voice of Captain Vulpin announced on the PA. Sure enough, below the Silver Fox was the city of Neo Vegas. Based upon it's Earth predecessor, it was a lavish metropolis of gambling, sex, drinking, and violence, carefully hidden by the veil of a family tourist attraction. Neon lights filled up the sky with their ungodly glow, signs drawing those willing to wager it all on simple get-rich-quick games. Aircars and spacecrafts raced about the streets and skys of the city around the abnormal buildings massive complexes. It was the only place in Lylat where one could visit a replica of ancient Kitaru ruins of Aquas and then cross the street to visit a duplicate of the Venetian canals of planet Earth.

Kitt dug up the remote, which was sticking up halfway from underneath the cushion between her and Fox, and turned off the TV.

"Hey, I was watching that," the boy whined. He reached out for the remote and tried to snatch it from her. Unfortunately for him, he was too slow, and she leapt to her feet on the couch. Fox hopelessly continued reaching for it, but to no avail as he has being held back by her right foot. The boy folded his arms and pouted, "Cheater," he mumbled.

The ship clumsily landed down in the shadows of the desert outside the city. A hatch opened from beneath the hull, forming a ramp leading into the large spacecraft. Shortly after, Kitt casually exited the vessel to the sandy desert floor below. She waited there silently for several minutes, watching inside the entranceway.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Fox scream as he hurtled out of the ship, landing face first in a sand dune near his vixen friend. A female lupine pirate standing in the ship's entrance dusted her hands off and walked back into ship muttering "Pervert" under her breath and leaving McCloud half-way buried upside-down in the sand. Kitt sighed and gave him a dirty glare as he wiggled his way out of the sand.

"Just don't mess this up, ok?" she growled as he coughed out the sand that had gotten into his mouth.

"Don't worry," he assured her, knocking the sand out of his fuzzy ears, "I done this sort of thing before, it'll be a piece of cake. I've done this sort of things a million times, just follow my lead and we're good."

It was past eleven when they finally arrived at their destination. Walking inside the casino Zati's Temple, themed after the ancient luck goddess of the Kitaru people who inhabited Aquas millennia ago, the boy's ears perked about listening to the jingle of loose coins flowing from vibrantly lit slot machines. He anxiously shuffled about the pile of cards concealed in his right hand under the white dress suit he had "borrowed" from the local clothing store. Kitt, wearing a fancy red satin dress also "borrowed" from the store, nervously eyed the area. A couple choice cards disappeared inside Fox's white sleeve as he confidently strolled toward the poker tables.

Fox moseyed about the numerous tables. He seated himself at a slightly less crowded table. Sitting beside him was an opossum gentleman dressed in a fancy white tuxedo. The gentleman was very well groomed except for his scraggly white hair that drooped messily over his face, slightly covering his goldenrod eyes. He confidently puffed the limp cigarette in his mouth before laying his hand on the table.

"Wow, you win again," exclaimed a dealer. She smirked as she shoved a whole pile of red, white and blue chips. Turning her attention to the new entrant, "Aren't you a little young to play, kid?"

Fox grinned and slid a laminated card with his photo on it. It was a driver's license to a Justin Bailey, age 22, with a picture of Fox with his sunglasses covering his eyes on the front. "Don't worry, the baby face throws everyone off," Fox replied slyly, "…Roxanna" He added, noticing the brass nametag on her burgundy outfit.

"Very well, Mr. Bailey. Everyone, place your bet," Roxanna announced, waving her shiny pink hair from in front of her face.

After placing his bet, the gentleman turned to the new player. "Dis yo firs time playin', mon ami?" he asked in his rough voice and heavy accent from the bayous. Although his voice was rather gruff, it did have a warm friendly tone to it.

"Nah, if I were you, I'd watch out though. I'm good at playing the hand I get," The boy laughed.

"If da's da case, den I guess I won' be goin' easy on ya'll," the gentleman also laughed, "By da way, da name's Lee, Alexandré Lee." He shook the boy's hand then picked up the cards handed to him.

As Fox picked up his cards, he couldn't quite help but notice the dealer had her eyes fixated on the gentleman sitting next to him. "Hit me," he said, tossing three cards to the brown raccoon, then receiving their replacement.

"Full house," she said confidently, playing her hand down. Both Fox and Lee tossed their cards in, neither having anything to compete with it. "House wins, pay up."

"Say, didn' you have a friend dere wit you?" Lee asked, noticing that Kitt was not with the boy anymore.

"Who? …Oh, you mean the missus. She probably had to use the bathroom or something," Fox chuckled nervously. He knew where she really had left to, it was all according to plan.

Meanwhile, Kitt slinked about the casino, slipping past everyone as casually as she could. She cautiously eyed all the surveillance cameras that littered the ceiling, silently she crossed her fingers hoping Fox to pull off his part of the job.

"A straight, looks like I win yet again boys," Roxanna gloated.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Fox conceded, "All I got is two pairs… Of ones." Smugly he flipped his cards over. Sure enough, there were four aces sitting there in his hand. The gentleman looked at him with bedazzlement, exposing his cards to be the exact same hand as well.

Simultaneously, the two leapt to their feet. "How did you… But I had that… You couldn't have… You cheated!" They shouted in unison.

"You both cheated," the dealer huffed, slamming her card onto the table angrily, "You do know that's against the…" Before she could finish, the boy looped his arms around the piles of chips and lifted them off the table. He quickly hightailed it away from the table as fast as his fuzzy legs would take him. "Security!" The dealer shouted as McCloud raced into a patch of slot machines. In the commotion, Mr. Lee discretely slipped out of sight.

Fox scrambled throughout the casino with an armful of poker chips. Every eye in the casino focused on the young thief as he raced toward his escape. All activity came to a stop, cards dropped, slot machines whirred to a halt, even the roulette table was at a standstill. Each and every single security camera locked on the fleeing vulpine, and in no time, a pack of security guards were on his bushy tail in hot pursuit.

As Fox scrambled through the casino, he could hear the music of the King himself begin to play.

_Bright light city gonna set my soul,_

_Gonna set my soul on fire._

_Got a whole lot of money that's ready to burn,_

_So get those stakes up higher._

"Nya nya, you can't catch me," the boy taunted as he scurried through an isle of slot machines, meeting an angry mob of security guards at the other end. He frantically turned around to see his pursuers quickly boxing him in. Trapped, he turned again, this time toward the chain of machines forming the barrier around him, then dashed straight toward them. He shot into the air, pushing himself off the row of machines with his feet and landed on the adjacent row. The force triggered a domino effect, sending machine after machine to crash below forming a brightly lit wave hurtling toward the pirate. "DAMMIT!" he screamed as he scrambled to stay one step ahead of the crashing wave.

_There's a thousand pretty women waitin' out there,_

_And they're all livin' devil may care,_

_And I'm just the devil with love to spare,_

The end of the line came quickly upon the boy as his crashing bridge of one-armed bandits grew quickly sorter as a band of grinning security guards await his arrive with devilish grins. Dead ahead was an oasis of various card tables, however, they were to far for him to make in a single jump, and blocking his trajectory were the awaiting guards. Fox didn't have much time left, the wave of falling slot machines drew closer, closing his eyes he made a leap of faith. The boy sailed over the heads of most of the guards, springing off the shoulders of the one bringing the rear and sending him careening into his colleagues and forming a sizable pileup beside the wreckage of machines. Not only did it temporarily disable his pursuers, but the act provided him enough force to reach the tables safely.

_Vivaaaaaaaaaaa Neo Vegas! Vivaaaaaaaaaaa Neo Vegas!_

The boy hopped from table to table over guards and dealers alike as they reached out for his ankles. Chips rained down onto the all the players ducking and covering under the commotion above them. Confidently, Fox showed off with spin jumps and flips as bounded across the tables. Surely enough, pride came before the fall as the young pirate tripped over his own feet as he leaped off the final table. In the end he found himself crashing face first into the crimson carpet below. Slightly daze, the boy shook himself to his feet.

"Uh… oh…" he sighed, seeing a ring of security guards hovering over him. The boy wriggled and squirmed as the guards reached out at him. They were only able to grapple onto his legs, pulling the boy upside down. Squirming about like a freshly caught fish on a hook, Fox flailed his hands around, eventually snagging onto the belt of his capturer. In one quick movement, the boy whipped the belt off the guard's waist. Comically, the guard's trousers dropped to the floor exposing a pair of white boxer shorts with the clichéd pink hearts. Embarrassed, he dropped the boy, who, still wielding the belt, fell to the floor. Fox immediately rolled onto his feet and cracked the belt as a makeshift whip, forcing the guards at bay.

_How I wish that there were more,_

_Than the twenty-four hours in the day, _

'_cause even if there were forty more,_

_I wouldn't sleep a minute away._

Fox worked his way out of the crowd and down a marked off corridor. His overconfidence lead him in a more-or-less direct path right into a new group of guards, ready to take care of the intruder. Fox slowly backed right into a tall body, looking up to see a grinning lion staring down at him. Fox laughed nervously for a second before slipping into one of the numerous doorways, six to be exact.

_Oh, there's black jack and poker and the roulette wheel,_

_A fortune won and lost on ev'ry deal,_

_All you need's a strong heart and a nerve of steel._

Shortly after watching the boy duck into middle right door, the guards cautiously followed. Fox snickered as he sneaked out of the back right door undetected, tip-toeing across the hallway to the opposite door. However one guard noticed the slippery pirate and herded his colleagues to the far left door. From the closest left-hand doorway, the boy scrambled down the hallway into its opposite door, again with the guards on his tail. From the middle door now on the right side, Fox raced to the front left door. Clichés upon clichés raced about as the boy popped in and out of doorways and raced about the hallway in every which way before taking cover in another room, exuding the flavor of a stale episode of Scooby Doo. At one point the chase had turned around with Fox pursuing his pursuers before everyone figuring out the mix-up. Another was spiced up when the young pirate got his furry hands onto a motor scooter locked away in one of the rooms, which lasted until he crashed it in the next room. Wising up to the crafty Vulpine, the guards each waited outside a door, waiting for their prey to pop out again. However, they were completely unaware that they had be out foxed again as Fox clambered above their heads in the ventilation shafts.

_Vivaaaaaaaaaaa Neo Vegas! Vivaaaaaaaaaaa Neo Vegas!_

After traveling what he felt was a safe distance, Fox finally dropped out of an overhead grating. To his surprise, he found his landing much softer than he had expected, yet he felt less comfortable than if he ended up hitting the cold concrete floor. He found himself cradled in the arms of a sneering, though bewildered, Doberman.

"My hero," Fox sighed in a falsetto voice as he leaped from the security guard's arms and onto the floor. The boy raced down the hallway, cornering himself in a dead end. Fortunately for him, all was not lost as there were two elevators along the adjacent wall. The boy threw himself into the elevator and jabbed his right index finger into a random button. The elevator quickly raced to the building's top. Enraged with humiliation, the Doberman stomped into the other elevator, and tailed the frantic vulpine.

_Viva Neo Vegas with you neon flashin',_

_And your one-arm bandits crashin',_

_All those hopes down the drain._

Up and down they raced, only stopping to check the if the coast was clear before spotting each other and starting all over again. People wandering about outdoors stopped watched in amazement as the blinking lights of the two elevators charged up and down the casino's wall. Much to McCloud's surprise, the other guards shut down the power to his elevator, stranding on the ground floor for an easy capture. The lights in his elevator vanished, leaving Fox alone in the darkness. In a panic, the boy frantically mashed the buttons to no avail. After coming all this way, the crafty pirate was not ready to give up just yet. He quickly leaped against the wall, shoving off it toward a small panel on the ceiling, in which he popped open with ease. Pulling himself up, Fox snatched the panel and began to shimmy his way up the elevator's cable. Upon reaching the next floor, he swung his body around the pole with the panel placed between his feet, stretching as far as he could to the closed steel doors. It was times like this where he wished he was taller than 5' 7", however, his luck paid off as his stature was just enough to reach salvation. Wedging the panel between the two doors, he began to push with all his might to pry the doors open, rocking back and forth to increase his force. After a few swing, he managed to finally pop them open, then looped around the cable once, timing his release just perfectly so that he sailed through the doors just before they closed again.

_Turnin' night into daytime,_

_If you see it once,_

_You'll never be the same again._

The carpeting burned his skin as he skidded to a halt. Ignoring the pain, Fox staggered to his feet, shielding his eyes from the bright lights of the casino he found himself in. The boy groaned as he spotted yet even more security guards hounding him down. Once again, the chase was on as he bolted down the casino, leaping on card tables and slot machines, swinging on lights, pushing past baffled guests, and blowing kisses out to all the waitresses he passed.

_I'm gonna keep on the run,_

_I'm gonna have me some fun,_

_If it costs me my very last dime._

Ducking and diving past lunging guards, Fox hurtled himself up onto a roulette table. He continued to run, finding his pursuers gaining on him fast. He continued to accelerate in vain, noticing he wasn't moving anywhere. Glancing at his feet, he noticed the red and black strips swirl round and round. Frustrated, the boy slapped his forehead realizing his folly. He then just shrugged and stopped running, letting the force of the wheel's spin fling him across the room.

_If I wind up broke up well,_

_I'll always remember that I had a swingin' time,_

_I'm gonna give it ev'rything I've got,_

_Lady luck please let the dice stay hot,_

_Let me shout a seven with ev'ry shot._

Fox grew more and more desperate, everywhere he turned a grinning guard was there to steal his freedom. He scurried out the casino, into the resort's prominence. He raced blindly into the theater, ducking into another marked off section. His heat felt like it was going to burst out of his chest, in a last attempt to ditch the "hounds," he slinked into a randomly selected room.

Fox could hear the guards stamped past the room. Sighing deeply with relief, he observed his surroundings. It appeared to be some sort of dressing room. Pulling out an unused costume, McCloud grinned deviously. Minutes later the guards returned as they checked every room. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! You perverts!" Fox screeched in the highest voice he could produce as he threw miscellaneous objects at the guards as they opened the door. Bright red with embarrassment, they quickly shut the door and went on their way. Fox laughed victoriously, dressed in a golden bikini with bright red feathers streaming out in the back and a brightly colored feathery headdress, his disguise completely fooled them. They weren't the only ones deceived by his cleaver resourcefulness.

"Come on, the show's starting," A cheetah man said, grabbing the boy's arm, "You're gonna be late yanno, can't keep the crowd waiting." He led Fox backstage to a group of young women all dressed in the same outfit as the one on his body. "Alright ladies, we're starting, break a leg now," she announced as they linked arms forming a line across the stage. _Man, that has to be the homeliest looking broad I've ever seen. They must be really getting to the bottom of the barrel with her_, the man thought to himself looking at Fox as the curtain raised.

_Vivaaaaaaaaaaa Neo Vegas! Vivaaaaaaaaaaa Neo Vegas!_

Much to Fox's shock, he found himself in a chorus-line of typical Vegas showgirls. Fox kicked along with them in perfect unison and even matching their height as well. Although dressed in drag, Fox was relieved to have shaken his pursuers, letting his mind focus on other things. Grinning lustfully, he slowly crept his hand down the back of the adjacent girls.

An ear piecing scream could be heard outside the theater, followed by the sound of a loud blow.

_Vivaaaaaaaaaaa, Vivaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Neo Vegaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas!_

Meanwhile, during the entire commotion Fox stirred up. Kitt tiptoed her way down the empty hallway toward her target. She held her fingers crossed, hoping the Fox's shenanigans were more than enough to keep security busy while she made her way to the casino's main computer system. Her heart beat a mile a minute each time she checked every bend and intersection, each time finding it completely empty. If Fox was good at anything, it was making a scene, and this was a true masterpiece.

Several minutes later, she found her standing at the door stop of her goal. Her heart felt as if it were coming to a halt as she opened the door, tossing a small canister into the room before instantly shutting it again. A minute passed before she opened it again, everyone operating the main computer system lay on the floor or slumped in their chairs in a deep sleep. The faint scent knock-out gas enveloped her, but it had cleared out enough to have any effect on her. She slowly crept her way to the large machine, a small monitor above her head played out Fox's big chase in perfect detail before her. Paying no attention to it, she slipped a small disk into the machine, then typed in a few commands on the keyboard before her.

"Good work lassy," the voice of Captain Vulpin congratulated her. A small real-time video window featuring his likeness popped up on the computer's main monitor. "You know what to do, just upload the new code into the CPU and we'll handle the rest here."

"I'm on it," she replied, punching in the commands. Timer bars on the screen confirmed the success of the download.

"Great job! Now leave the rest to me." Another timer bar popped up onto the screen, this one signifying the download of a good-sized fraction of the casino's assets. Kitt watched wide-eyed as the percentage completed grew by each second, the tension could be cut with a knife.

"Well, now, what do we have here?" squeaked a the figure of a small feline. She spun around on her office chair with enjoyment as she watched the entire event play out before her on her computer screen. The said screen happened to be the only light source cutting the pitch blackness of the room. The feline giggled, and started typing various commands on her keyboard. "Naughty, naughty, foxies, you know better than to take what's not yours," she whispered. The white light of her monitor reflected off the lenses of her turquoise goggles cloaking her eyes in a white veil. A mischievous grin slinked across her mouth as she twirled the strands of white hair dangling in front of her face.

"Kathlene, honey, are you ok in there?" A woman's voice shouted from down the hall.

"I'm fine mother," the girl growled, her pink fuzzy tail flicked about in fustration.

"Ok, did you clean your room?"

Kathlene paused for a moment, staring at the piles of miscellaneous memorabilia of sword-wielding elves in green tunics, yellow rats with red cheeks, and chubby Italian plumbers. "Yes mom," she lied.

Her mother quieted. The girl then turned her attention back toward the thieves on her monitor. The timer bar had reached ninety-eight percent completion. Her mouth reformed into a guilty grin as she pushed down the enter key of her keyboard. "No, no, I don't thinks this time."

Back in the computer control room of the casino, Kitt was sweating bullets as she watched the timer bar reach completion. Right as it was changing from ninety-nine to one hundred percent, the bar started to rapidly decrease.

"WHAT IN BLAZES!" Vulpin shouted as he watched his booty slip from his fingers. His crew scrambled to retrieve the information, entering hundreds of lines of code to no avail. "What the bloody 'ell is going on here! This isn't supposed to 'appen!"

Beside the window displaying Vulpin popped up an identical video window. The new window's quality was of far less quality, resembling streamed media from a home webcam. In it bore the likeness of a shadowy character, it was incredibly dark wherever this stranger was located, only enough light to make out a very young feminine feline appearance with pink and white fur and a pair of shining goggles over her eyes. "Uh uh uh. Didn't your mommy ever teach it's not nice to steal?" she squaked.

"What the..!" Kitt shouted.

"I shoulda known, a bloody 'acker," snarled the captain.

"Not just any hacker, the cutest one ever," the hacker boasted.

"Shaddap you, and tell me were you put my money," Vulpin snapped.

"Your money? Last time I checked it belonged to the casino," scoffed the feline.

"Just who are you?" asked Kitt.

"I'm me, you're friendly neighborhood internet rebel. Now if you excuse me, I have to figure out what to do with the money," the hacker taunted, "Now what to do with twelve million kei… Of yeah, I kinda sorta forgot to mention, you might wanna get outta here, I already alerted the authorites and they'll be over here in a few minutes. If you don't wanna be put in the pokey, you might wanna skedaddle now." Winking arrogantly, she cut the transmission of her message.

"Shit! Kitt, that girl wasn't kiddin', she purposely tripped the silent alarm when she 'acked us." Vulpin informed the vixen. She took no hesitation in making her escape, only slowing to retrieve the disk and cursing the mysterious feline under her breath she blindly raced down the hallways. It was too late for stealth, now she had to get out of there while she still had a chance. Despite her panic, her mind was less on her escape than it were on the safety of McCloud.

She had good reason to worry for him too. After the show, Fox changed into his normal white jacket, green shirt and pants combo. He had never removed his lucky bandana, however, having safely tucked it into the bra of his disguise, there was no way he'd ever part from that thing. _Those show girls really pack a punch_, he thought to himself as he rubbed his sore cheek. He couldn't believe his luck, he stuck his fuzzy head out the door, not a guard to be seen anywhere. The boy proceeded to tip-toe his way down the hallway, back out into the casino, where again, the coast was clear. Slipping his hands into his pockets, he casually strolled toward the exit, he even whistled a cheery tune. As he continued walking, he felt something cold jab him in the back. Still whistling, the boy calmly raised his hands in the air and u-turned back into the casino. Behind him were a pair of vicious-looking Jaguars grinning malevolently as they held a concealed handgun to the boy's back. They led Fox out of the casino and into a dimly lit bar, through the bar all they way back into the men's room.

"You know what we're here for… StarFox," hissed the first once they were inside. "That reward on your fuzzy head just keeps getting bigger and bigger, I think it's about time somebody finally cashes in on it." He shoved the gun into the boys back, maneuvering him into an empty toilet stall. Fox just continued whistling. "Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. After all, you are wanted alive… or DEAD." He and his partner laughed villainously. Fox made not a single move, just continued whistling.

He arrogantly completed his song, still keeping his cool despite the danger he was in. As soon he finished the very last note, he whipped around and kicked the gun out of his capture's hand. Catching it in midair, he released the cartridge into the bowl and flicked the leaver, watching the bullets spiral down the drain before calmly handing the empty gun back.

"You little SHIT!" He roared, diving toward the vulpine. Instinctively, Fox leaped over him, stretching his legs out to hold himself up as the jaguar sailed below him, as he did so, Fox gave him a little extra push landing his attacker's face into the toilet. As the first jaguar sputter and coughed the filthy water out of his system, his partner took a swing at McCloud. The attack caught the boy off guard and made a direct hit to his groin. Whimpering with pain, Fox dropped to the floor, landing on the first attacker and smashing his face back into the bowl.

The boy rolled off the jaguar's back right as his partner tried to smash him with both hands. Right as he got up, the first attacker found his face back in the commode. This gave Fox a chance to counter, grabbing onto the door, he kicked off the second attacker causing him to fall over the first, once again knocking him into the drink. The force also flung the door open, with Fox still hanging on, giving him a good head start toward the door. However, he was cut off as an innocent entered the room to answer nature's call.

Fox swung around, spotting a small open window. He scrambled up the wall and squeezed his way out. His position didn't improve, however, finding himself hanging out of an imitation marble pillar, with busy traffic racing below. There was only one way to go from where he was, swing all the way out, Fox clung onto the pillar as tightly as he could and inched his was upwards. As he climbed, he felt something grab a hold of his left foot.

Looking below, he could see the razor sharp teeth of the feline duo as pulled the pirate toward them. Fox scrambled to keep his position, kicking frantically to share free. Fox was definitely a slippery one, managing pull out and shimmy his way upward. Determined to cash in on Fox's bounty, the duo made their way out of the window and climbed after him. The chase carried on several stories, making it's way to the brightly colored neon signs lighting up the night.

Fortunately, the lights were enclosed in a small indentation in the wall, big enough for Fox to climb into and have standing room. He quickly ran to the other side, he knew he could easily step on their hands and cause the to plummet to the streets below, but he was a pirate, not a murderer. Instead he removed his bandana and wrapped it around his hands, being as long as it was, he was able to safely cover each hand and still be able to move without much hindrance.

Turning toward the lights, he too one last look at his pursuers before grabbing hold and pulling himself upwards. He could feel the warmth of the tube casings of the lights as he ascended up them, his bandana absorbed most of the heat making it bearable to continue. Swinging like a gymnast, he flipped himself into the air, grabbling hold of the building's roof.

After making it to solid ground again, he watched as the duo struggled to keep up with him, retying his bandana around his neck. He could hear them bicker as they made their way upward, yelping from the burns they receive. Eventually they reached the roof, and Fox was ready for them.

Free from worry of harming innocent bystanders, the boy was prepared to stand his ground. He swiftly evaded their initial pounce with a simple back flip. Landing on his hands, the boy returned a swift kick to each attacker as he returned to his feet in what appeared to be some strange variation of break-dancing. Madder than ever, the two charged in simultaneously. Blows were exchanged by all parties, Fox used is light-footedness to his advantage, evading the vast majority of their attacks. After a short, but intense battle, he finally finished the match-up with a powerful roundhouse to their faces. The two toppled over each other unconsciously.

"Hmmph, amateurs," Fox boasted, triumphantly dusting his hands off. He looked over the slumped felines and chuckled softly to himself. "Shouldn't have messed with a pro space pirate… You gotta get up pretty early to catch ol' StarFox of guard."

_Whaaaam!_

Fox felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. Looking up he could only see a dark figure watching over him as his vision faded to black.


End file.
